Lightning 3 special team goals, end 4-game skid, top Flames

TAMPA, Fla. — Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat scored on the power play and Yanni Gourde added a shorthanded goal as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 Saturday to snap a season-long four-game losing streak.

Alex Killorn scored his 24th goal of the season to help the Lightning win for the first time since an 11-game winning streak. Andrei Vasilevskiy ended a three-game losing streak with 18 saves.

The victory came soon after the Lightning announced team captain Steven Stamkos will undergo surgery for a core muscle injury and was expected to miss the rest of the regular season and potentially the first round of the playoffs. Tampa Bay is second in the Atlantic Division and the playoffs are scheduled to begin the week of April 6.

Andrew Mangiapane, Sean Monahan and Elias Lindholm scored for Calgary, which had a three-game point streak come to an end. David Rittich finished with 30 saves.

Killorn made it 4-2, taking a feed from Blake Coleman to come in alone from the circles in and pull the puck to his backhand and tuck a shot inside the post at 14:57 of the second period.

Tampa Bay opened the scoring as Johnson sat in the middle slot to tip Mikhail Sergachev’s shot past Rittich at 13:52 for Tampa Bay’s first power play goal at home since Jan. 7 against Vancouver. The Lightning had just six power play goals since Jan. 2 before Saturday.

Palat scored Tampa Bay’s second power play goal of the game at 7:05 of the second period, settling a pass from Kucherov in the right circle before getting off a wrist shot that deflected off defenceman Derek Forbort for a 2-0 lead.

Gourde made it 3-0 with a shorthanded goal, his second of the season and fifth of his career, with a shot from the right circle at 11:50. The goal came 54 seconds after Barclay Goodrow was turned aside on a shorthanded breakaway.

The Flames answered with two goals 52 seconds apart to pull to within one.

Mangiapane raced in down the left wing side and fired a slap shot that went through Vasilevsiy on the short side at 13:12. Lindholm followed that up with a slap shot from the top of the right circle that grazed the stick of Palat and beat Vasilevskiy.

Monahan scored on the power play with 2:49 left for the Flames.

NOTES: Lightning RW Pat Maroon returned after missing Thursday’s game with an undisclosed injury. … Calgary allowed its ninth shorthanded goal of the season. … Lightning LW Blake Coleman, who missed Thursday’s game after his wife gave birth to a baby girl, picked up his first point with Tampa Bay since being traded from New Jersey on Feb. 16. … Flames C Mikael Backlund extended his scoring streak to six games.

UP NEXT

Flames: At Florida on Sunday.

Lightning: Host Boston on Tuesday.

Erik Erlendsson, The Associated Press