LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Jordan Nolan scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period to help the Los Angeles Kings defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 Monday night for their fifth straight victory.
Jeff Carter added a goal in the third, Anze Kopitar scored the tying goal in the second and Jonathan Quick stopped 21 shots for the Kings, who are on their longest winning streak since taking six in a row from Oct. 12-26. The defending Stanley Cup champions are fighting for a playoff berth after slumping in recent months.
Nolan scored his fourth of the season at 3:36, taking a pass from Dwight King and putting the puck in the top of the net to give the Kings a 2-1 lead.
King notched his second assist on Carter's 16th goal at 13:58 of the third. Drew Doughty flipped a pass to Carter just past the blue line and Carter converted, extending the Kings' lead to 3-1.
Kopitar tied the game 1-all on a breakaway at 7:04 of the second. Trevor Lewis found a streaking Kopitar, whose shot just cleared the top of Andrei Vasilevskiy's right blocker.
Vasilevskiy made 25 saves for the Lightning, who were playing the second half of a back-to-back.
Nikita Nesterov raced in, picked up a rebound and scored top shelf for his first NHL goal at 12:11 of the first, giving Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead. The Lightning got a late goal from Tyler Johnson with 36 seconds left to cut it to 3-2.
The Kings have scored 19 goals during their winning streak. Their defence clamped down on Tampa Bay, the league's highest-scoring team with 188 goals.
NOTES: Lightning D Luke Witkowski went down behind his net a couple of minutes into the game when he took a hard hit from Lewis in the front and Kopitar in the back. Witkowski eventually got up and skated off on his own before returning in the second. ... The Kings completed a sweep of the Lightning, including a 4-2 victory on the road Feb. 7. ... Tampa Bay fell to 4-6-1 in the second game of a back-to-back.
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