The Tampa Bay Lightning (27-7-2) picked up points in their eleventh straight game as they knocked off the Calgary Flames (22-11-2) 5-4 on Thursday night in Canada.
The game started well for the Flames. After Ondrej Palat scored, Calgary answered with a three-goal outburst to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission. In the second period the Bolts rallied to tie the game 3-3 with goals from Stevan Stamkos and Alex Killorn. In the third period Dan Girardi scored a huge goal at the 15:35 mark to give the Lightning a late lead, but Johnny Gaudreau, who had a brilliant third period, scored to tie the game under two minutes later and force overtime.
A thrilling overtime saw a lot of momentum shifts for both teams, but neither team able to come up with a point, and this game was headed for the shootout. Victor Hedman scored in the first round of the shootout, to be answered in the second round of the shootout by Sean Monahan. That would be all of the goals either team could muster until the seventh round, when JT Miller came up with the game winner to lift Tampa Bay to a 2-1 win in the shootout and a 5-4 win in the game.
Louis Domingue went 30-for-34 in net for the Lightning, in addition to six saves in the shootout, to get the win. David Rittich went 28-for-32 in net for the Calgary Flames in the losing effort. The Lightning now wrap up their western Canadian road trip as they go to Edmonton on Saturday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 10 PM - you can hear the game, beginning with pregame coverage at 9:30, on News Radio 970 WFLA.