Nikita Kucherov during the Tampa Bay Lightning's game against the Philadelphia Flyers at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida on December 27, 2018. Credit: Twitter (@PR_NHL)

The Tampa Bay Lightning has posted an unbeaten record in the month of December by going 11-0-1 since November 29. Its latest road trip out west found the guys going 3-0-1, and the team entered Thursday night’s contest against the Philadelphia Flyers boasting the most points in the NHL (58, good enough for a six-point lead over the second place Toronto Maple Leafs).

The 2018-19 campaign has been a different story for a 15-16-4 Flyers squad, which has endured front office shake-ups on the way to falling into seventh place in the Metropolitan division. Philly’s failures, and the Bolts’ tenacious play, continued as the Lightning responded to blowing a 5-2 third period lead by beating the Flyers 6-5 on an overtime goal from Alex Killorn.

Andrei Vasilevskiy looked ready to play from the get-go, and his highlight reel acrobatics on a Wayne Simmonds shot and rebound were enough to get the Bolts through a sketchy penalty kill. The effort, however, couldn’t stymie a funky deflection that bounced over Vasilevskiy’s left shoulder and into the net shortly after the penalty expired. Going down 0-1 was enough to wake the Bolts up as Brayden Point and Tyler Johnson linked up to feed Nikita Kucherov who capitalized on shit defense from Flyers’ Dale Weiss on the way to scoring a gorgeous one-timer that evened the score at 1-1.

Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth looked relatively sharp and stopped 14 of 16 shots in the frame, but even his solid leg saves could not defeat a persistent Point who cleaned up his own rebound during a Bolts power play that eventually put the Lightning up 2-1 with less than a minute remaining in the first.

Flyers captain Claude Giroux opened the second period scoring and tied the game 2-2 with his gorgeous, dangling-leg move to beat both Ryan McDonagh and Vasilevsky at 4:36, but Flyers fans salivating over the highlight were left disappointed after a frame that saw a hard-working Steven Stamkos score his 21st and 22nd goals of the season. Tyler Johnson also got on the scoresheet with his 17th goal of the season which came with just nine seconds left in the second period.

In the third period, the Lightning lost both J.T. Miller and Mikhail Sergachev to injuries, but the real pain was watching the Bolts give up three, unanswered third period goals as the Flyers crawled back into the game to force overtime.

What could’ve been a complete turd of a contest was salvaged, however, just 18 seconds into the extra period when Alex Killorn fired a missile past Neuvirth, who ended up stopping 27 of the 33 shots he faced.

With the win, the Lightning improves to 28-7-2. The Bolts’ next game is on Saturday, December 29 against the Montreal Canadiens. Puck drop is at 7 p.m., and Orlando’s Gerry Williams Band will play a free concert on Thunder Alley ahead of the game.

This article appears in Dec 27, 2018 – Jan 3, 2019.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...