TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning have been one of the league’s best teams at home, and reeling from their longest losing streak in nine years, a stretch of games at Amalie Arena was just what this team needed.
Coming off road losses on back-to-back days against Buffalo and Carolina, the Lightning were trying to get their swagger back. As their recent struggles continued, players admitted that they had lost some of the confidence that has made them such a successful team.
Their 5-2 home win over the struggling Flyers (24-29-11, 59 points) was definitely a step forward, snapping their five-game losing streak.
The Lightning (38-21-5, 81 points) were focused on creating offense by pressuring the net front, and they were able to make life uncomfortable for Flyers goaltender Carter Hart with traffic in the crease.
After being outscored 14-2 in the second period over the course of their losing streak, the Lightning outscored the Flyers 3-1 in the middle 20 minutes despite being outshot 16-11 during that span.
After surrendering the night’s opening goal, the Lightning rallied with the help of their power-play unit, which scored three goals. Nikita Kucherov scored two of them and assisted on another.
Alex Killorn also had a three-point night and scored twice, opening the scoring by tapping in a touch pass from Kucherov on the power play to tie the game 1-1 at the 7:38 mark of the first. He scored again after Hart fell to the ice after trying to play the puck behind the net, giving the Lightning a 4-1 lead midway through the second period.
Killorn has four goals in his last three games.
But maybe the most important goal of the game came from resilient puck pursuit by the Lightning’s newly assembled third line, which set the tone for a strong second period.
The Lightning hope that putting Ross Colton, Nick Paul and trade acquisition Tanner Jeannot together will give the Lightning a boost. And Colton’s goal at the 8:46 mark in the second — giving Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead — offered a glimpse of the unit’s potential as puck hounds.
All three players fought for the puck to keep it in the offensive zone, and Colton kept pushing it forward from the front of the net until he tapped it past Hart into the back of the net.
