Pontus Holmberg tied it for the Lightning at 15:40 of the third period. Yanni Gourde passed the puck out front from behind the goal line to Holmberg in the slot, where he chipped it over Calgary goalie Devin Cooley’s blocker.
“That line is as about as consistent as it comes for us and counted on in all situations,” said Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh. “They know they want to keep the puck out of our net but know they’ve got to contribute to it and put it in the net for us at times too. All their hard work paid off there tonight with a big goal by ‘Holm’.”
Victor Olofsson, Morgan Frost and Mikael Backlund also scored for the Flames (29-34-7), who have won three straight games. Cooley made 32 saves.
“We gave up one late which we wouldn’t want to do, but we found a way to win,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “There’s nothing better than winning. At the end of the day, even the nights that your team doesn’t play well and you win, everybody goes home feeling much better about themselves, so winning is the elixir to most things.”
McDonagh and Darren Raddysh also scored for the Lightning (43-21-5), who went 3-0-1 on a four-game road trip, including a 5-2 win at the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. Johansson made 25 saves.
“The final leg after playing back-to-back in 22 hours and we’re down 3-1 halfway through the game and we get a point out of it, so there’s a lot of good to take out of this especially with the way the Eastern Conference is going,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “You lose a couple, you’re in trouble, so I’m proud of the guys on this trip. We needed it.”
The Lightning are second in the Atlantic Division, four points behind the Buffalo Sabres but with two games in hand. They increased their lead over the third-place Montreal Canadiens to five points.
McDonagh gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 7:25 of the first period when his wrist shot from the high slot went in off the glove of Flames defenseman Zane Parekh’s past Cooley.
“Kind of a relentless forecheck,” McDonagh said of what led to his goal. “We talk about trying to get three high and really not trying to pass up shots. I know it kind of pinballed around and found its way in, but at certain points throughout this stretch here, we haven’t been shooting enough, so we’ve got to keep doing that.”
Olofsson scored his second goal in as many games, his first two with Calgary since getting acquired from the Colorado Avalanche on March 6, to tie it 1-1 at 16:25. He took a pass from Yegor Sharangovich and snapped a shot from the left circle short side over Johansson’s left shoulder.
“There’s been some good energy around our team lately,” Huska said. “We talked about losing players, but we brought some good players in that are quality people and good hockey players and I think that’s helped as well.”
Frost scored 27 seconds later at 16:52 to give Calgary a 2-1 lead. He took a backhand pass from Matt Coronato in the left circle before skating towards the net and snapping a shot to the far side past Johansson’s glove.
“We’re finding a way to capitalize on some of our chances,” Huska said. “I think it’s a little bit more consistency and we’re sticking with it.”
