@jayRecher
Anthony Cirelli scored two goals in regulation and Steven Stamkos scored the lone goal in the shootout as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Minnesota Wild 5-4 on Sunday night at Amalie Arena.
Brian Elliott made 28 saves in goal for the Lightning and stopped all three shots he saw in the shootout.
Patrick Maroon & Alex Barre-Boulet also scored for Tampa Bay.
Fresh off of a troubling loss last night to the Devils, you know the Lightning wanted to come out with a purpose tonight against the Wild.
And that's exactly what they did.
Following a penalty to Minnesota's Alex Goligoski, Cirelli tipped a point shot from Victor Hedman past Wild goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen just 66 seconds into the game to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.
Maroon extended the lead to 2-0 when he went around the net and backhanded a shot over the glove of Kahkonen just over ten minutes later. The call on the ice of Maroon's shot was originally deemed "no goal", but after a short review, the call was overturned and the home crowd rejoiced.
The Wild cut into the lead at the 14:40 mark of the 1st when Marcus Foligno tipped a Matt Dumba point shot on the power play to make it 2-1.
There weren't any other goals in the opening period, but there was a pretty entertaining - albeit short - scrap between Ryan Hartman and Zach Bogosian with under two minutes left. The Wild winger was whistled for tripping up Ross Colton and upon exiting the penalty box after the two minutes, he and the Lightning defenseman dropped the gloves. Bogosian threw some big shots and even knocked Hartman's helmet off with a punch.
Just four seconds shy of the four-minute mark of the second period, Brandon Duhaime took a pass from Jordie Benn and fired an absolute laser beam over the glove of Elliott to tie the score at two apiece.
Cirelli's second of the night came on a display of pure determination.
After finding a loose puck to the right of Kahkonen, Cirelli went to the backhand and was stopped, but his second effort resulted in his second goal of the evening to give the Lightning a 3-2 lead.
Barre-Boulet scored his second goal of the year at the 9:19 mark of the 3rd period to put the Bolts ahead 4-2.
That goal turned out to be a very important insurance goal because the Wild's Kevin Fiala scored with the goalie pulled with 2:48 remaining to pull the visitors within one.
Tampa Bay looked to be heading towards a victory but after Ondrej Palat rang one off the post of an empty net, Joel Eriksson Ek scored with 38.7 seconds left to tie the score at 4-4 and send the game to overtime.
Neither team scored in OT, but the Wild had the better of the chances with Elliott coming up with a couple of big saves to keep the game tied.
Kahkonen made 20 saves in defeat for Minnesota.
A Very Special Night : It was Hockey Fights Cancer Night for this matchup between the Lightning & Wild. The Bolts wore their special white & lavender HFC jerseys in the pregame warmups (picture below) and those jerseys will be auctioned off for charity at a later date.
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SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - PPG - Cirelli - (Hedman, Palat) - 1:06
- Tampa Bay - Maroon - (Bellemare, Perry) - 11:15
- Minnesota - PPG - Foligno - (Dumba, Goligoski) - 14:40
2nd Period
- Minnesota - Duhaime - (Benn, Pitlick) - 3:56
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - Barre-Boulet - (Stamkos, McDonagh) - 9:19
Overtime
NONE
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PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- Minnesota - Goligoski - (High Sticking) - 0:12
- Tampa Bay - Perry - (Hooking) - 3:54
- Tampa Bay - Rutta - (Hooking) - 13:58
- Minnesota - Hartman - (Tripping) - 16:29
- Minnesota - MAJOR - Hartman - (Fighting) - 18:38
- Tampa Bay - MAJOR - Bogosian - (Fighting) - 18:38
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Cirelli - (High Sticking) - 7:39
- Minnesota - Foligno - (High Sticking) - 13:01
3rd Period
- NONE
Overtime
- Tampa Bay - Killorn - (Interference) - 3:23
- Minnesota - Bench Minor - (Too Many Men) - 4:52
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What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Tuesday night as they welcome the Philadelphia Flyers to Amalie Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm with the pregame show starting at 6:00pm on Lightning PowerPlay & NewsRadio WFLA.