Lightning 5 Flames 4 (SO)
CALGARY — J.T. Miller scored in the seventh round of the shootout to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-4 win over the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday.
Ondrej Palat, Steven Stamkos, Alex Killorn and Dan Girardi also scored for the Lightning (27-7-2), who have gone 10-0-1 in their past 11 games. Goalie Louis Domingue made 34 saves, including seven in overtime.
Nikita Kucherov chipped in with a pair of assists. The Lightning now have a 16-0-0 record when Kucherov records a multiple-point game this season.
Johnny Gaudreau and Sam Bennett had a goal and an assist for the Flames (22-11-3), while Sean Monahan and Mikael Backlund also scored.
Making his fourth straight start in net for the Flames, goalie David Rittich made 32 saves
The Lightning opened the scoring at 3:38 of the first when Palat swatted a loose puck in the crease past Rittich. Nikita Kucherov took the initial shot from the slot that hit both Brayden Point and Monahan before bouncing right to Palat for an easy goal.
Bennett pulled the Flames even 51 seconds later with a tap-in goal of his own. Domingue got a piece of Bennett’s first shot, but the puck trickled behind him and the Calgary forward adeptly followed up on the play to tap the loose puck into the net.
Monahan gave Calgary a 2-1 lead at 7:50 when he muscled his way into the slot past Tampa Bay defenceman Braydon Coburn to one-time a pass from Elias Lindholm past Domingue.
Backlund was then the recipient of some hard work by Bennett at 12:25 of the first. Bennett fought hard behind the net to get the puck out front to Backlund, who backhanded his linemate’s pass past Domingue to give the Flames a two-goal advantage.
Stamkos scored his 18th goal of the season at 3:19 of the second when his pass to teammate Adam Erne went off of Calgary defenceman TJ Brodie and past Rittich.
Killorn then swatted a rebound in behind the Calgary goalie at 5:52 to pull the Lightning into a 3-3 tie.
Lindholm had a great chance to put the Flames back up by a goal just before the eight-minute mark of the third period when he fired a pass from Matthew Tkachuk towards Domingue, but the puck hit the post and bounced out of harm’s way.
After Girardi blasted a point shot past Rittich at 15:35 of the third to put the Lightning up by a goal, Gaudreau backhanded a shot through Domingue’s legs at 17:32 to tie things up once again and force overtime.
Notes: Playing in his 700th NHL game, Stamkos scored his 366th career NHL goal to pull past Martin St. Louis (365) for second place on the club’s all-time list. Stamkos now trails just Vincent Lecavalier (383) for most goals in team history. … Bennett and James Neal returned to Calgary’s lineup after being out due to upper-body injuries. Bennett missed a pair of games, while Neal sat out on Saturday in Dallas when the Flames lost 2-0 to the Stars.