@jayRecher
Wow!
What more can you say about Anthony Cirelli?
In an example of pure will and determination, Tampa Bay's young center scored with 12.7 seconds left in overtime to lead the Lightning to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.
Cirelli barreled in on Ottawa goaltender Marcus Hogberg and scored just milliseconds before crashing into him and sending the fans into a frenzy.
The Lightning were all over the Senators right from the start and Nikita Kucherov, who was a game-time decision after leaving the last game with a lower body injury, got the party started on a pretty freakish play. .
Following a fantastic scoring chance from Victor Hedman after a slick pass from Kucherov, the Senators attempted to clear the puck but Ottawa forward Anthony Duclair couldn't handle it. The Tampa Bay superstar quickly fired a shot towards the Ottawa net that caught Hogberg by surprise and the Lightning were up 1-0.
To the Senators' credit, they bounced back quickly and found the equalizer just under four minutes later when Mark Borowiecki's shot from the point beat Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to tie things up 1-1.
Tampa Bay didn't panic and went right back to work looking to re-take the lead.
And that's exactly what they did.
After some great work down low from the Patrick Maroon-Cedric Paquette-Yanni Gourde line, Gourde found Paquette all alone in front and he snapped one quickly past Hogberg to put the Lightning ahead 2-1.
Brayden Point pushed the lead to two when scored at the 3:32 mark of the second period, but the Senators answered back even quicker this time as Connor Brown fired a shot past Vasilevskiy just 29 seconds later to make it 3-2.
Tampa Bay dominated pretty much the rest of the period, but one errant play changed all of that.
Following a long stretch of play in the Senators zone, Kucherov turned the puck over near the blue line and Duclair made the steal and came down all alone on Vasilevskiy. The Ottawa winger made up for his earlier gaffe by beating the Tampa Bay netminder to tie the score at 3-3.
Vasilevskiy finished the night with 25 saves. Hogberg made 36 saves.
Kucherov sat the majority of the third on the bench, which Jon Cooper discusses below.
SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - Kucherov - (Unassisted) - 7:27
- Ottawa - Borowiecki - (Tierney, Namestnikov) - 11:05
- Tampa Bay - Paquette - (Gourde, Maroon) - 17:22
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Point - (Stamkos) - 3:32
- Ottawa - Brown - (Brannstrom, Tierney) - 4:01
- Ottawa - Duclair - (Unassisted) - 14:14
3rd Period
- NONE
Overtime
- Tampa Bay - Cirelli - (Point) - 4:41
PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- NONE
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Vasilevskiy - (Tripping) - 1:23
- Tampa Bay - Team - (Too Many Men) - 16:32
- Ottawa - Tkachuk - (Interference) - 17:11
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - DOUBLE MINOR - Stamkos - (High Sticking) - 9:51
Overtime
NONE
What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action Thursday night as they host the Dallas Stars at Amalie Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm with the pregame show starting at 6:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA.