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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Ben Bishop stymied Carolina again.
Bishop made 25 saves in his return from an injury and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Hurricanes 2-1 on Saturday night.
"He was there when we needed him and ended up winning a 2-1 game," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "He's in control back there. He gives us a lot of confidence when he's on the ice."
Bishop, who had missed the previous four games due to a lower body injury, lost his bid for his second shutout this season and 10th overall with 5:56 to play on Andrej Sekera's goal. The goalie is 5-0 with two shutouts against Carolina.
"Some teams you seem to play better against," Bishop said. I don't know why."
Tampa Bay got goals from Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn.
Bishop made a post to post pad save on John-Michael Liles' in-close shot with 7 minutes left in the first.
Cam Ward stopped 36 shots for the Hurricanes, who are 2-8-1 in their last 11 games.
"He's been awesome," Hurricanes center Nathan Gerbe said. "We'd like to help him out a bit more and offensively put some goals in the net. Make life a little bit easier."
Carolina, with just 71 goals in 35 games this season, has dropped nine of its last 10 games against the Lightning.
"It looked like we had a hard time making any plays, anything clean out of our own end," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. "Therefore, we didn't have any speed in the neutral zone and didn't spend enough time in the offensive zone."
Kucherov opened the scoring 8:50 into the first off a pass from behind the net from Ondrej Palat, who had three assists in Tuesday's 4-3 win over Pittsburgh. Kucherov has two goals and four points over his last two games.
Ward kept the Hurricanes within one in the second by making 12 saves, including five on Steven Stamkos.
Killorn stopped a 12-game goal drought and put the Lightning up 2-0 on a high-slot shot at 4:53 of the third.
Sekera got Carolina within 2-1 late in the third.
"I thought we had a lot of really good chances to blow it open," Cooper said. "We couldn't do it and sure enough they come down and score."
NOTES: Tampa Bay rookie F Jonathan Drouin didn't play because of flulike symptoms. Cooper says Drouin's status will be updated Sunday. ... Carolina C Jordan Staal (broken fibula) and LW Jiri Tlusty (upper body injury) remain out but both are practicing with the team. ... The Hurricanes have been outscored 34-21 during the first period this season. ... Tampa Bay is 16-0-1 when ahead entering the third period. ... Gerbe played in his 300th NHL game and had an assist. ... Carolina C Eric Staal picked up an assist, giving him 36 assists and 67 points in 63 games against Tampa Bay.
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