National Hockey League
Tampa Bay 4, Winnipeg 3
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 9, 2017
Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida
Referees: Kyle Rehman, Kelly Sutherland
Linesmen: Derek Amell, Darren Gibbs
Attendance: 19092

TAMPA, Fla. -- Tampa Bay's Brayden Point continues to thrive in overtime while the Winnipeg Jets just struggle.

Point scored his third overtime goal of the season to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-3 victory against the Jets on Saturday.

He raced in on Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and flipped a backhander into the net 36 seconds into overtime as Tampa Bay won its fourth consecutive game to cap a perfect four-game homestand.

"I look at this four-game homestand and we get all the results that we wanted, we rose to the occasion when we had to,'' Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said.

"The team did what they had to do to win games and played all different kinds of ways against different teams. A little bit of a rebound after a horrific (1-3) road trip that we had, so you have to like the bounce back.''

Nikita Kucherov, Mikhail Sergachev and Yanni Gourde scored for the Lightning while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 saves.

Nikolaj Ehlers, Andrew Copp and Kyle Connor scored for Winnipeg, which is on a season-long three-game losing streak. Hellebuyck finished with 24 saves.

On the winner, Point gained speed through the neutral zone, received a pass from Anton Stralman and turned Bryan Little inside-out to create a clear lane to the net before deking to his backhand for his 12th goal of the season.

"It's opportunity, it's lucky breaks," Point said. "Tonight, I got one. Little made a good play on me to poke check the puck but it hit my shin pad and kind of bounced for a break. It's luck and it's opportunity. I'm just happy to finish it.''

The Jets, meanwhile, fell to 0-5 this season in overtime.

"I don't know what to say about that,'' Hellebuyck said. "Obviously we'd like some better success in OT, but I feel like we can end the game before that.''

The teams traded goals in the first period, Copp getting loose in the slot to receive a pass from Adam Lowry before snapping a wrist shot over Vasilevskiy just 1:23 in to the game. Gourde tied it late with a power-play goal, setting up on the backdoor to tap home a pass from Point at 18:57.

They swapped goals again in the second as Sergachev danced off the boards to the slot while protecting the puck on his backhand before wheeling around and zipping a wrist shot past Hellebuyck for his seventh goal of the season at 16:39 to give Tampa Bay its first lead of the game.

The Jets answered that 1:41 later when Connor got a deflection on a shot from Adam Morrissey to send the game tied heading to the third period.

Ehlers would put Winnipeg in front at 7:02 as he came down the left wing side with speed and put a shot thought the pads of Vasilevskiy. After Vasilevskiy robbed Ehlers twice on the next shift, Kucherov pulled Tampa Bay back even with his 20th goal of the season, finding a seam through traffic at 8:51.

"I don't think we were as sharp and quick as we're capable of being,'' Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice said. "But a pretty good fight tonight. I wanted us to get better as the game went on and I thought we did that. (But) We have got a better game to play. We looked like we have seen both oceans a couple of times this month."

NOTES: Lightning D Jake Dotchin was activated off injured reserve and played for the first time since suffering an undisclosed injury on Nov. 18. Dotchin missed eight games. ... Tampa Bay scratched RW J.T. Brown and D Andrej Sustr while D Braydon Coburn missed his fourth consecutive game with an undisclosed lower body injury. ... Winnipeg scratched D Tucker Poolman, C Shawn Matthias and C Marko Dano. ... Tampa Bay has a power-play goal in nine consecutive games. ... Jets RW Blake Wheeler extended his scoring streak to five games. He and Lightning C Steven Stamkos are tied for the league lead with 30 assists. ... Nikita Kucherov reached the 20-goal mark for the fourth consecutive season. ... Winnipeg RW Patrik Laine saw his four-game, goal-scoring streak come to an end.
Top Game Performances
 
Winnipeg   Tampa Bay
Kyle Connor 1 Points Brayden Point 2
Kyle Connor 1 Goals Brayden Point 1
Patrik Laine 1 Assists Tyler Johnson 2
N/A Power Play Goals Yanni Gourde 1
N/A Short Handed Goals N/A
Connor Hellebuyck .857 Save Percentage Andrei Vasilevskiy .850
Connor Hellebuyck 24 Saves Andrei Vasilevskiy 17
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
Winnipeg 20 3 0-1 2-3 8 29
Tampa Bay 28 4 1-3 1-1 4 25
Upcoming Games
  • Tampa Bay will play their next game on the road against St. Louis. The Lightning have a W/L % of .667 after a win and .875 after a loss.
  • Winnipeg will play their next game at home against Vancouver. The Jets have a W/L % of .529 after a win and .615 after a loss.