Lightning rally past Kings to avoid second straight loss

TAMPA-- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 38 saves for his ninth win in a row when the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 in a shootout at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.

Nikita Kucherov tied it 3-3 with 1:15 left in third period on a one-timer after Anthony Cirelli won a face-off in the offensive zone.
"I saw Cirelli win the draw and the puck was coming toward me … that's it," Kucherov said. "We have guys that can do that on the face-off and Cirelli is one of those guys."
WATCH: [All Kings vs. Lightning highlights]
Steven Stamkos, who tied the game in the first period, scored the deciding goal in the fourth round of the shootout. The Lightning (28-14-4) have won 11 of their past 12 games.
"When we're at home we have to capitalize and we aren't at home very much this month," Cirelli said. "Tonight was a huge win for us to come away with the two points and I thought we did a good job."

Jonathan Quick made 35 saves for the Kings (18-25-5), who have lost five of their past six.
Jeff Carter gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 4:18 of the first period on a tip-in, and Kyle Clifford made it 2-0 at 6:52.
"Overall great performance by our team," Kings defenseman Sean Walker said. "It's tough blowing a lead there a couple of times, but I think overall you look at the game and I think we played great. There's lot of opportunities we probably could've scored there again, but give credit to them, they've got a great goalie."
Killorn made it 2-1 at 10:06 with his 19th goal of the season to match his NHL career high. Stamkos tied it 2-2 with a goal off a rebound at 11:25.
Dustin Brown gave the Kings a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal at 12:00 of the third period.
"[Losing] shootouts ... it is what it is. I think we played a really good game, but it just happens," Brown said. "They find a face-off goal, it's not too often a guy wins it and it's a one-timer from the middle of the ice, but they have the ability and put it in our net."
Cedric Paquette appeared to score a game-tying goal with 6:05 remaining in the third period, but it was waved off when the officials determined the Lightning forward hit the puck with a high stick. Video review supported the call.
"As a team they don't give you much, so it's a bit of a waiting game," Lightning defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. "[Quick] is a goalie that can make it tough on you to score goals, we just had to stick with it until the end and we finally got one to go through on the 6-on-5. It was a great shot by [Kucherov] to put that in."
Vasilevskiy made a save against Brown in the shootout to finish the win.
"I scored on that move plenty of times in my career, but it's generally against shorter goalies," Brown said. "Thinking about it now it's a harder move to pull off on a longer-legged goalie, which he is (6-foot-3)."
Carter's goal ended Vasilevskiy's shutout streak at 150:13. He has not lost since Dec. 14 and is 13-1-1 since Dec. 7. He was named to the NHL All-Star Game on Monday, replacing Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask.
"He's the best goalie in the League," Kucherov said. "He should've gotten picked in the first place."

They said it

"There were a lot of ups and downs. [The Lightning] are a very creative, quick-attacking team. I think they got the best of us in some situations, but we fought back and worked our way to a lead with a big power-play goal. Disappointed at the end that we couldn't close it out, but fairly good effort." -- Kings coach Todd McLellan
"We were due 6-on-5 at some point, we've been close but haven't been able to get one. Big-time shot by [Kucherov]. It's one of those things where you're staring zero points in the face and you end up with two, you've got to take that and run." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Need to know

The Lightning started the overtime with 1:01 of power-play time. Play was never stopped after the power play ended, resulting in 4-on-4 play for the final 3:59. ... Lightning forward Alexander Volkov had an assist on Killorn's goal for his first NHL point in his seventh game. ... Killorn scored 19 goals in 81 games in 2016-17. ... Carter scored for the first time in eight games. ... Kings defenseman Drew Doughty played his 900th NHL game. ... It was the last of three home games in January for Tampa Bay, which plays its next six games on the road.

What's next

Kings: At the Florida Panthers on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Lightning: At the Minnesota Wild on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)