Tampa Bay beats Detroit to grab sixth straight win

The Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t mind working overtime to extend one of the NHL’s longest current winning streaks.

Steven Stamkos scored twice and Ryan Callahan had the lone shootout goal Sunday night to lift Tampa Bay to a 4-3 win over Detroit for the Lightning’s sixth straight victory.

Callahan deked right and got the puck past Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard to seal the victory, the first during the streak that required extra play.

Only Pittsburgh, with seven straight, has a longer winning streak.

Stamkos said a back-to-back weekend - Tampa Bay won at Columbus less than 24 hours before Sunday’s victory - didn’t matter.

“Back to back and this never is an easy building to play in, but we found a way,” he said after coming within one of tying for the NHL goals lead.

“We played a solid game and found a way to win.’’

Ben Bishop stopped all three shots he faced during the shootout and made 17 saves to secure his ninth victory of the season.

“That was as close to a 60-minute game as we’ve played,’’ Lightning Coach Jon Cooper said. “I think we dictated the play most of the game.

“Give Detroit credit. We bent but we didn’t break.’’

Howard had 27 saves.

Detroit trailed 3-2 at the end of the second period thanks to Darren Helm’s slap shot goal and Gustav Nyquist tied the game midway through the third with his team-best eighth tally.

Stamkos’ second goal, his 10th this season, ricocheted in off the right post early in the second period to give the Lightning its first lead and Tyler Johnson made it 3-1 a few minutes later.

Detroit’s Johan Franzen opened the scoring six minutes in on the first shot of the game’s first power play when he knocked home a centering pass from Niklas Kronwall. Stamkos scored during later in the period on a 5-on-3 power play.

The Red Wings had three good scoring chances during sudden death, including Kronwall’s point-blank shot that missed the mark.

The biggest save came from Howard, who made a pad save on Jonathan Drouin’s wraparound shot with less than 20 seconds left.

Detroit was happy to come away with a point but fell to 0-3 in shootouts a season after going 5-9 in them.

“We haven’t been good enough. We can’t seem to find a way to score; then we don’t win shootouts,’’ Nyquist said. “It’s tough. We want to get that extra point when it comes down to it but we haven’t been able to do it this year.’’ AP