Brayden Point’s 16th goal just 1:01 into overtime lifted the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 win over the host Nashville Predators on Friday afternoon and a sweep of the teams’ two-game regular-season series.
After Nashville’s Filip Forsberg went off for high sticking 41 seconds into the extra session, Point scored his NHL-leading ninth power-play goal off a slick feed from Nikita Kucherov to give the Lightning their fifth win in their last eight games (5-2-1).
Tampa Bay also won a 3-2 overtime game against visiting Nashville on Oct. 28.
Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel also scored goals for the Lightning. Victor Hedman assisted on Hagel’s tally, giving him 588 career helpers and tying him with Martin St. Louis for the most in Tampa Bay franchise history.
With goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy back in Tampa resting for Saturday’s back-to-back matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Jonas Johansson made 28 saves in his fourth start this season (2-1-1).
Roman Josi scored both of Nashville’s goals and Juuse Saros stopped 25 shots as the club fell to 2-2-2 in its past six contests. Predators defenseman Jeremy Lauzon (lower-body injury) missed his second consecutive game.
To open the second meeting this season between the teams, Nashville found the net on its first shot with a former Lightning great getting in on the action.
On a faceoff in front of Johansson, Steven Stamkos beat former teammate Cirelli on the draw and sent the puck back to Josi. Josi moved a couple of strides to his left and flipped a long, seeing-eye shot that worked its way through traffic and past Johansson just 83 seconds in.
Stamkos, the Lightning’s longtime captain, notched the only assist. He had two helpers in his first game against his former club.
Early in the second, Saros stopped Point on a breakaway, but Cirelli tied it 1-all after Luke Glendening stole the puck from Josi and led a two-on-zero shorthanded break. Cirelli bobbled the puck but managed to chip it in for his 10th at 4:06.
Tampa Bay grabbed its first lead when Hagel’s long shot went through traffic and slipped past Saros for his 10th goal this season and the 100th of his career. Josi redeemed himself from the slot for his seventh goal to knot the score at 2-all 11:20 into the second period.
–Field Level Media
