Anthony Cirlli and Brandon Hagel each had a goal with an assist, and Gage Goncalves noted the crucial number in Shootout, as the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning won 3-2 over the Dallas stars on Thursday evening.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 rescues for the lightning strike (40-23-5, 85 points), who overcame blew a 2-0 lead to win its third straight in a matchup of potential Stanley Cup challenges. Goncalves came through in the fourth round of shootout for Tampa Bay, which is 14-3-2 since January 30.
The flash surpassed Dallas (43-21-4, 90 points) 38-24, but only succeeded from Cirelli and Hagel, partly thanks to the game of Backup Casey Desmith (36 rescues). Rookie Oskar Back and Mason Marchment made each one in the second period for Dallas, who had their eight-game home-winning line on Thursday.
Tampa Bay opened the score only 4:35 in the competition. At the transition, some stars that passed from Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov ended with Hagel converting to what was essentially an empty star network.
The same group put Lightning forward 2-0 with 12:39 left in the second period. This time, a subsequent Cirelli ripped into a backhander from Hagel’s rebound.
However, the stars responded 37 seconds later to reduce the deficit in half. The Dallas defender Colin Blackwell sent the puck to the net, and in the middle of a little heavy traffic it looked back.
With 6:12 left in the center frame band Dallas competition. On Power Play, the stars put relentless pressure on Vasilevskiy, which responded to the call during the peeping, until Marchment placed to squeeze the puck over the line with a second left on the man-exertion.
Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel and Yanni Gourde had a two-to-zero rush about five minutes into the third, but never got a shot when Desmith kicked out the leg to prevent a pass between the two. Moments later, Desmith Back-to-back stopped ongoing lightning strikes.
Tampa Bay defender Ryan McDonagh took a puck on his face late in regulation and left the game.
-Field level media
