Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel each had a goal with an assist, and Gage Goncalves notched the deciding tally in the shootout, as the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning won 3-2 over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for the Lightning (40-23-5, 85 points), who overcame blowing a 2-0 lead to win their third straight in a matchup of potential Stanley Cup contenders. Goncalves came through in the fourth round of the shootout for Tampa Bay, which is 14-3-2 since Jan. 30.
The Lightning outshot Dallas (43-21-4, 90 points) 38-24, but managed just goals from Cirelli and Hagel, thanks in part to the play of backup Casey DeSmith (36 saves). Rookie Oskar Back and Mason Marchment each scored in the second period for Dallas, which had its eight-game home winning streak end Thursday.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring just 4:35 into the contest. On the transition, some stellar passing from Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov ended with Hagel converting into what was essentially an empty Stars’ net.
That same group put the Lightning ahead 2-0 with 12:39 remaining in the second period. This time, a trailing Cirelli flipped in a backhander off Hagel’s rebound.
However, the Stars answered 37 seconds later to cut their deficit in half. Dallas defenseman Colin Blackwell sent the puck toward the net, and amid some heavy traffic, it glanced in off Back.
With 6:12 left in the middle frame, Dallas tied the contest. On the power play, the Stars put relentless pressure on Vasilevskiy, who answered the call during the peppering, until Marchment positioned himself to push the puck over the line with one second remaining on the man-advantage.
Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel and Yanni Gourde had a two-on-zero rush roughly five minutes into the third, but never got a shot off as DeSmith kicked his leg out to thwart a pass between the two. Moments later, DeSmith stopped back-to-back up-close Lightning chances.
Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh took a puck to the face late in regulation and left the game.
–Field Level Media
