Victor Hedman scored an unassisted goal 2:45 into overtime Tuesday night to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 win over the visiting San Jose Sharks.
The defenseman stole the puck at his own blue line, raced back the other way and weaved through the slot before beating James Reimer for his 10th goal of the season, lifting Tampa Bay to its seventh win in nine games (7-1-1).
Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning, and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (25-7-4) made 19 saves. Tampa Bay improved to 8-1-1 against the Pacific Division.
Killorn’s goal was the 161st of his career, tying him with Tyler Johnson for the fifth-most in franchise history.
High-scoring right wing Nikita Kucherov (COVID-19 protocol) missed his third consecutive game.
Logan Couture tallied his 14th goal and had an assist, and Rudolfs Balcers scored his fourth goal in five games for the Sharks, who finished their four-game trip through the Southeast with a 1-1-2 record. They are 2-4-3 in their past nine games.
After beating San Jose 7-1 on the road 10 days ago, Tampa Bay found the going much tougher in the first 20 minutes of the rematch — primarily due to the play of Reimer, who finished with 29 saves.
In his fifth straight start, Reimer turned aside all nine first-period shots he faced, including a couple of good chances on Tampa Bay’s first power play after Nicolas Meloche went off for cross-checking Corey Perry.
Each team scored in the first five minutes of the second period as the game opened up.
Cirelli led a fast rush into the offensive zone and dished the puck to Brayden Point, who drove in deep before dumping it back to Cirelli for an easy tap-in and his 13th goal just 92 seconds in.
San Jose tied it 1-1 when Balcers redirected a wide shot by Marc-Edouard Vlasic past Vasilevskiy at 4:50 for his sixth goal.
Just as a brief 5-on-3 Tampa Bay power play ended, Killorn gloved a high pass from Steven Stamkos, put it at his feet and swatted the puck past Reimer at 18:08 for his 15th goal of the season and a 2-1 lead.
Couture, who hadn’t scored in eight games, tied it 2-2 when he tipped in Brent Burns’ shot at 1:12 of the third period.
–Field Level Media
