Lightning defeat Maple Leafs, extend Atlantic Division lead

TAMPA --The Tampa Bay Lightning extended their lead in the Atlantic Division with a 4-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.
Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn scored for Tampa Bay (50-19-4), which rallied with three goals in the third period. The Lightning lead the Atlantic with 104 points, five more than the Boston Bruins, who have two games in hand.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for his NHL-leading 41st win of the season, setting a Lightning record (Ben Bishop had 40 wins in 2014-15).
WATCH: [All Maple Leafs vs. Lightning highlights]
"I did not think about [the record] at the beginning of the season, but I have this record because our guys have played well," Vasilevskiy said. "It's all about the guys and their effort. I've had huge goal support almost every game. Last couple of games, I've given up five goals a game and I have to get better."

James van Riemsdyk had two goals, and Zach Hyman scored for the Maple Leafs (43-23-7), who are in third place, six points behind the Bruins. Frederik Andersen made 21 saves in his return after missing the previous two games with an upper-body injury.
"We played well in the first two [periods] and they came with the pushback," Andersen said. "They are a good team and it shows we've got to be playing a full 60 minutes. You take these lessons and put them in your backpack for the rest of the year."
McDonagh made it 3-2 at 1:24 of the third period on a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Andersen high on the stick side.

Kucherov tied it 3-3 at 3:32 with a shot that deflected off the skate of Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly. He leads the NHL with 94 points (37 goals, 57 assists), three more than Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche.
Killorn put the Lightning ahead 4-3 at 9:14 on a one-timer off a pass from Anthony Cirelli.
"I think they were playing very well in the first two periods but we didn't have our best in those first two periods," Killorn said. "In the intermission, we just wanted to stick to our game and thought about how good it would feel to come back and win this game."
Van Riemsdyk gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 15:06 of the first period. Mitchell Marner found van Riemsdyk open at the hash marks, and he beat Vasilevskiy with a shot to the far post.
Van Riemsdyk made it 2-0 on the power play at 1:29 of the second period. He has scored seven of his 33 goals this season in the past four games.

"We definitely did a lot of good things but obviously we didn't play consistently enough throughout the game," van Riemsdyk said. "They are a really good team and you have to play a full 60 (minutes) to beat a team like that. There's definitely some things we've got to clean up, but we showed ourselves how good we can be when we do things the right way."
Hyman made it 3-0 at 15:41. He intercepted a pass in the Lightning zone and beat Vasilevskiy top shelf.
Hedman cut the lead to 3-1 at 16:40 with his 13th goal, tied for eighth among NHL defensemen.
"It's not easy to come back from a 3-0 deficit against a really good team," Hedman said. "We were able to go out there and put on a really good performance in the third, and that's what this team is all about."

Goal of the game

Killorn's goal at 9:14 of the third period.

Save of the game

Vasilevskiy's save on Josh Leivo at 13:26 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

McDonagh's goal at 1:24 of the third period.

They said it

"There are going to be momentum swings in big games all the time, you just have to stay calm and continue to execute. When you go back through the game we didn't give up that much, to be honest with you. We weren't good enough in the third and we have to be better." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock
"It's 82 games, so I think if you polled the 31 coaches I don't think one of them would say their team has been confident for all 82 games. What I do know is this group has found a way. The one thing they haven't done is go on prolonged losing streaks. We haven't gone on massive winning streaks, but we've won more than we lost. I think that's the sign of a group that when it's time to dig in, they dig in." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Need to know

The Lightning matched the 2014-15 team (50-24-8) for most wins in a season. ... Lightning forward Ryan Callahan left during the first period with an upper-body injury. … Lightning forward Ondrej Palat returned after missing 26 games with a high ankle sprain. He had one shot and was minus-1 in 12:25. … The Lightning overcame trailing by three or more goals to win in regulation for the fifth time in the history, the last coming Dec. 23, 2006 (4-3 vs. the New York Rangers). … Marner has eight points (two goals, six assists) during a six-game point streak.

What's next

Maple Leafs: At the Nashville Predators on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; TVAS, FS-TN, SNO, NHL.TV)
Lightning:At the New York Islanders on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN, MSG+, SUN, NHL.TV)