Lightning Outlast Flyers In Thriller

Steven Stamkos had a career high five points so it was only fitting that he buried the puck past Petr Mrazek in the shootout to secure the win for the Tampa Lightning over the Philadelphia Flyers.

The game deciding goal came from Brayden Point whose notched his NHL best fourth game-deciding goal of the season.

The Lightning showed a lot of resiliency coming back from down 3-1 and 5-3 deficits, before ultimately heading to a franchise record fifth consecutive overtime. “It was obviously not the game plan we had envisioned.” said Steven Stamkos. “But anytime you’re down a couple goals in different parts of the game, especially in the third, and you come back and win it’s emotional. It shows that guys care and that the guys never give up.”

Stamkos and Victor Hedman each scored a pair of goals. Dan Girardi and J.T. Miller also scored. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 37-of-43 shots to pick up his NHL best 38th win of the season.

The Lightning improve to 45-17-4 (94-points) with the win. They also take the three game season series over the Flyers (2-1-0). It was an impressive victory for a Lightning team that had played four games in less than six days. Entering the game, the Flyers had picked up 22 of a possible 26 points spanning their previous 13 games.

Nolan Patrick, Jakub Voracek, Robert Hagg, Jori Lehtera, Ivan Provorov, and Claude Giroux scored for the Flyers who fall to 34-21-10 [78-points]) with the loss. Philadelphia will head to Sunrise Florida to take on the Panthers tomorrow afternoon.

Lightning Notes: