Blues Lose Game, Goalie; NHL Scores

By ESPN

The Tampa Bay Lightning are starting to have success at home during a key time, while the St. Louis Blues had another road defeat and lost a goalie, too.

Alex Killorn scored a go-ahead goal early in the third period, Jonathan Drouin added two late goals and the Lightning rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Blues 5-2 on Thursday night.

"I think the one thing that was impressive was we're down two and got five unanswered (goals)," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "I'm really proud of the way we battled back."

Killorn put Tampa Bay up 3-2 from the high slot 5:25 into the third period to help the Lightning go 2-0 starting a stretch of seven of eight games at home. Drouin made it 4-2 with 1:40 remaining, a play that Blues goalie Jake Allen was hurt on trying to make a save, before adding an empty-netter.

"He'll be fine," St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said of Allen, who appeared to have a lower-body injury.

Tampa Bay also got goals from Brian Boyle and Michael Bournival. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves and Victor Hedman had three assists.

The Lightning are without oft-injured goalie Ben Bishop, who could miss a month with an undisclosed lower-body injury. Bishop, a potential free agent after the season, was hurt in the first period of Tuesday's 4-1 win over Detroit.

David Perron and Wade Megan scored 32 seconds apart in the first period, and Allen stopped 27 shots for the Blues. St. Louis saw a six-game winning streak against Tampa Bay end.

The Blues are 5-10-1 on the road, compared to a home record of 13-2-4.

"We had a great first period," Hitchcock said. "When they scored their second goal they took the game over. They won the board battles, we weren't able to create anything. You've to play 60 minutes and we didn't."

After Boyle redirected Hedman's shot during a power play midway through the second, Bournival, recalled from Syracuse of the AHL before the game, tied it at 2 with 2:33 left in the period. Boyle has four goals in the last five games, while Hedman has nine assists over the same stretch.

"The way we battled through adversity again, being down two goals is never easy in this league," Hedman said.

Tampa Bay has allowed the first goal in 21 of 34 games.

Thursday, December 22 Scoreboard

Carolina 3, Buffalo 1

New Jersey 4, Philadelphia 0

Columbus 7, Pittsburgh 1

Minnesota 4, Montreal 2

Ottawa 2, Anaheim 1 (OT)

Tampa Bay 5, St. Louis 2

Boston 3, Florida 1

Los Angeles 4, Nashville 0

Toronto 6, Colorado 0

Winnipeg 4, Vancouver 1

Friday, December 23 Schedule (All Times Central)

Buffalo at New York Islanders, 6 p.m.

Minnesota at New York  Rangers, 6 p.m.

New Jersey at Pittsburgh, 6 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Washington, 6 p.m.

Montreal at Columbus, 6 p.m.

Detroit at Florida, 6:30 p.m.

Boston at Carolina, 6:30 p.m.

Colorado at Chicago, 7:30 p.m.

Los Angeles at Dallas, 7:30 p.m.

Vancouver at Calgary, 8 p.m.

Toronto at Arizona, 8 p.m.

Edmonton at San Jose, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, December 24

No games scheduled

Sunday, December 25

No games scheduled

Monday, December 26

No games scheduled

Tuesday, December 27 Schedule (All Times Central)

Pittsburgh at New Jersey, 6 p.m.

Washington at New York Islanders, 6 p.m.

Ottawa at New York Rangers, 6 p.m.

Boston at Columbus, 6 p.m.

Buffalo at Detroit, 6:30 p.m.

Minnesota at Nashville, 7 p.m.

Winnipeg at Chicago, 7:30 p.m.

Calgary at Colorado, 8 p.m.

Dallas at Arizona, 8 p.m.

San Jose at Anaheim, 9 p.m.