TAMPA, Fla. _ Solid play from their special teams helped the Lightning end a season-high four-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday at Amalie Arena.
The win came on the day the Lightning announced that Steven Stamkos will be out six to eight weeks with a core muscle injury.
Tampa Bay (41-19-5) got three of its goals on special teams: two on power plays and one shorthanded.
The Lightning started out strong, getting their first power-play goal in three games in the opening period.
Tyler Johnson scored off a blue-line shot from Mikhail Sergachev. He tipped the puck past Calgary's David Rittich to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 13:52.
The power play paid off again in the second period. Sergachev shuffled off the puck to Nikita Kucherov, who then passed across the ice to Ondrej Palat, who converted for a 2-0 lead.
The Lightning finished 2 for 4 on the power play.
The power play was a heavy focus in Friday's practice. Coach Jon Cooper said then that the Lightning had "been dry of late" but that they hadn't had much practice time to work on special teams. Late in the season, the Lightning have tried to find a balance between rest and practice time. Their most recent previous practice had been in Arizona, about one week ago.
"Without Stamkos in there right now, we're trying a few different looks," Cooper said Friday. "Things that we have done in the past _ maybe a couple of years ago _ just getting guys in spots, giving them feeling the puck a little bit."
The Lightning went up 3-0 at 11:50 of the second period when Yanni Gourde scored shorthanded as a holding penalty against Sergachev expired.
Calgary then pulled within one in less than a minute on goals from Andrew Mangiapane and Elias Lindholm starting at 13:12.
But it didn't take long for Tampa Bay to strike back. Alex Killorn dribbled the puck back and forth from his right to his left as he made his way toward the right side of the goal. As Rittich made a move to the left side, Killorn struck on the right, giving the Lightning a 4-2 lead.
With the goal, Killorn tied his career points high for a season with his 47th, matching a mark set in the 2017-18 season.
Calgary cut Tampa Bay's lead to one late in the third period on a power-play goal. Mangiapane got his second goal of the evening off a faceoff with less than three minutes remaining.
