Score Strip

Purcell's goal in 3rd lifts Lightning over Flyers

Series at a Glance

  1. Game 1: Canceled
    Philadelphia0
    @ Tampa Bay0
    Canceled
  2. Game 2: Final
    Philadelphia1
    @ Tampa Bay5
    Final
  3. Game 3: Final
    Tampa Bay1
    @ Philadelphia2
    Final
  4. Game 4: Final
    Philadelphia2
    @ Tampa Bay4
    Final

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Teddy Purcell got a key goal before Steven Stamkos secured the win on a late milestone effort.

Purcell scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, Stamkos got his 200th NHL goal and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 on Monday night.

Purcell's in-close deflection at 9:25 of the third came shortly after the Lightning killed off a short-handed situation.

''Maybe the luckiest play of the game,'' Purcell said. ''It kind of went off my stick and found a way to go in.''

Stamkos scored his 21st goal this season into an empty net with 3 seconds to play. He became the fourth-youngest player - at 23 years, 41 days - to reach 200 goals. The center trails only Wayne Gretzky (21 years, 256 days), Mario Lemieux (22 years, 148 days) and Dale Hawerchuk (22 years, 266 days).

''I don't think it's a huge milestone, but that's something nice,'' Stamkos said. ''It wasn't a highlight reel goal by any means. Obviously I want to keep producing, helping the team win.''

Ondrej Palat and Tom Pyatt also scored for Tampa Bay, which improved to 12-1 when leading after the first period.

Maxime Talbot and Claude Giroux had goals as Philadelphia fell to 0-11 when trailing entering the second period.

''It's frustrating to see that we can't come up with the two points when we played a pretty good game,'' Giroux said. ''The season is not over. We're a team that's going to battle, and we're not going to stop until the end. We believe in the guys that we have in this room, and we're going to keep competing and working hard.''

Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen played in his 1,000th NHL game on his 38th birthday. He is the 282nd NHL player, and sixth from Finland, to reach the milestone.

Pyatt put the Lightning up 2-1 after skating down the slot and redirecting Tyler Johnson's pass past Ilya Bryzgalov with 2:57 left in the first.

Giroux got the Flyers even at 2 from the left circle at 15:21 of the second.

Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead when Palat scored from the low right circle 6:38 into the game. The rookie scored his first NHL goal in Saturday night's 4-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Talbot tied it at 1 at 13:55 of the first. The center made a nifty move to get past two Lightning defenders and then slip a backhander past Anders Lindback. Jakub Voracek hit the post with 2 seconds remaining in the period.

Philadelphia's Matt Read hit the crossbar 6 minutes into the third.

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette benched Scott Hartnell for an extended period after the left wing took a roughing penalty early in the second.

''We've got to play a clean game,'' Laviolette said. ''It seems like we do things and shoot ourselves in the foot, so we've got to play a clean game.''

Hartnell was not surprised by the move.

''If that's the way it's going to be, that's the way it's going to be,'' Hartnell said. ''It's not Lavvy trying to send a message to me ... he's trying to send it to the team. It's unfortunate we couldn't come back tonight.''

Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman and left wing Ryan Malone both left with undisclosed upper-body injuries. Lightning coach Guy Boucher said the status of both was being evaluated.

NOTES: 39 players that have reached 1,000 NHL games played spent at least part of their career with the Flyers. ... Johnson has a goal and two assists over his first three NHL games. ... Tampa Bay D Keith Aulie stopped a 22-game point drought with an assist on Purcell's goal. ... Giroux and Talbot both had six shots on goal.

Team Comparison

TeamGWLOTLPtsStandingsGFGARoad/Home
Tampa Bay4818264404th Southeast14815012-10-2 Home
Philadelphia4823223494th Atlantic1331418-15-1 Road

Team Stat Leaders

Goals

Steven Stamkos, TB
29
Jakub Voracek, Phi
22

Assists

Martin St. Louis, TB
43
Claude Giroux, Phi
35

Points

Martin St. Louis, TB
60
Claude Giroux, Phi
48

Plus/Minus

Benoit Pouliot, TB
8
R. Fedotenko, Phi
8