Lightning 2, Coyotes 0
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning would be in a world of hurt without goaltender Ben Bishop. The Lightning have managed just seven goals in their last 12 games, but one was all Bishop needed on Saturday against the Arizona Coyotes.
Left winger Ondrej Palat scored his 13th goal of the season and Bishop recorded his fifth shutout of the season, stopping all 31 Coyotes' shots as the Lightning pulled within two points of Florida for the Atlantic Division lead with a 2-0 victory over Arizona at Gila River Arena.
With the win, Bishop reached the 30-win plateau for the third straight season. Bishop has allowed two goals or less in eight of his last 11 starts. He entered the game with the NHL's best goals-against average (2.06) and the third-best save percentage at .927.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring with 57 seconds left in the first period. Palat sent a seemingly harmless wrist shot toward the net that beat goalie Louis Domingue (32 saves) to the short side. Nikita Kucherov scored his 27th goal of the season into an empty net with 50 seconds remaining in the game.
The Coyotes had a golden opportunity to tie the game when Tampa Bay took three consecutive penalties early in the second period, rewarding the Coyotes with 5:04 of power-play time and 1:57 with a two-man advantage. Arizona managed six shots and had the Lightning scrambling, but Bishop stopped them all, including a pad stop on left winger Max Domi (career-high eight shots) at the right post.
Midway through the second period, Bishop also made a terrific stop when he got a piece of Tobias Rieder's shorthanded attempt after it appeared Rieder had beaten him.
The game turned chippy in the second period with the teams combining for six penalties and a lot of pushing and shoving. Tampa's Alex Killorn was called for slashing Coyotes center Martin Hanzal and Hanzal was given an embellishment penalty even though Killorn's stick appeared to catch Hanzal in the groin area.
The teams combined for 15 penalties and 35 penalty minutes.
NOTES: Coyotes D Oliver Ekman-Larsson (bruised shoulder) missed his fifth straight game. ... Lightning C Cedric Paquette was in the lineup despite suffering from an undisclosed illness at the morning skate that left him questionable. ... Lightning RW Ryan Callahan also missed the game. All coach Jon Cooper said is that Callahan is "banged up." ... Coyotes GM Don Maloney said he would like to open talks on a contract extension for C Martin Hanzal, who has one year left on his deal. "I don't want to be in the same situation with Marty as we were this time around with Mikkel Boedker, so we'll see if we can work out an extension that makes sense," said Maloney, who was forced to trade Boedker at this year's trade deadline when the sides couldn't agree on a new deal.