Alex Killorn, Victor Hedman and Brian Boyle scored third-period goals to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-4 come-from-behind win against the Dallas Stars at Amalie Arena on Saturday. Hedman put the Lightning ahead to stay at 5:31 when he sent a wrist shot past Stars goalie Jhonas Enroth off a pass from Tyler Johnson to make it 4-3. Dallas failed to clear the zone during a line change, giving Tampa Bay a 3-on-2 opportunity, and Hedman capitalized with his ninth goal. Boyle's shorthanded goal into an empty net with 24 seconds remaining gave the Lightning a 5-3 lead and proved to be the game-winner. Stars center Vernon Fiddler scored his second goal of the game from just in front of Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it 5-4 with 2.6 seconds remaining. The puck went in off Fiddler's skate, and video review upheld the referee's call on the ice that it was a goal. Killorn tied the game 3-3 at 3:40 of the third with his 14th goal. He took a centering pass from Ryan Callahan and beat Enroth high on the glove side. Anton Stralman and Nikita Kucherov each scored in the first period for the Lightning, whose 26th home win set a Tampa Bay record. The Lightning (41-20-6) have won three in a row. They kept pace with the Montreal Canadiens, who defeated the Coyotes 2-0 on Saturday and lead Tampa Bay by two points for first place in the Atlantic Division. The Stars (29-27-10) took a 3-2 lead in the second period, when they got goals from Tyler Seguin and Fiddler, but they couldn't hold on for the win. Seguin returned after missing 10 games because of a sprained MCL in his right knee. He tied the game 2-2 at 3:52 of the second with his 31st goal off a centering pass from John Klingberg, who was injured later in the period. Seguin also scored a power-play goal in the first period. Fiddler gave the Stars a 3-2 lead at 11:03 of the second on a slap shot from the top of the point with Patrick Eaves providing a perfect screen on Vasilevskiy. The Lightning took a 1-0 lead at 12:59 of the first period when Stralman scored his sixth goal. Ondrej Palat passed the puck to Stralman at the top of the point, and the defenseman took a slap shot that appeared to bounce off the Stars' Patrik Nemeth and Shawn Horcoff before getting past Enroth. Kucherov scored his 25th goal at 15:52 of the first period off assists by Palat and Braydon Coburn. It was Coburn's first point with the Lightning since being acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers last Monday.
Stars Quotes
Lindy Ruff: "I think we had opportunities; we had three Grade A ones and we haven't been able to put it in the back of the basket. We've hit posts, we've hit goaltenders … it's tough. We put a lot of effort into this game tonight. We were down to five [defensemen] when Klingberg went down. Hopefully that's not too serious. Maybe a tough change hurt us. We knew they were going to generate some opportunities. We generated our fair share too. Both teams' speed created turnovers. They finished on a couple of ours, and we had the point-blank opportunities and didn't finish."Tyler Seguin: "Same story. … We can talk as much as we want but … you [can't] give away wins, and that's what we did again tonight. It's on all of us in here. There aren't any excuses for it. It's just tough to swallow. I worked really hard to get back in the lineup and I was happy to be out there. But even with two goals, it doesn't matter without getting the win."
Jamie Benn: "We turned the pucks over, and they took advantage of their opportunities. They have such good offensive power and they showed it tonight."
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