Victor Hedman scored 10 seconds into overtime to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-3 win against the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night.
Ondrej Palat had a goal and two assists, Alex Barre-Boulet scored his first NHL goal, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves for the Lightning (32-14-2, 66 points), who pulled within a point of the Florida Panthers for second place in the Central Division.
Eric Robinson scored two goals, and Joonas Korpisalo made 23 saves for the Blue Jackets (15-25-10, 40 points) before leaving with an apparent injury early in the third period. Elvis Merzlikins replaced Korpisalo and made seven saves for Columbus, which lost its ninth in a row (0-7-2) to match its longest winless streak in franchise history.
The Blue Jackets also dropped nine in a row (0-7-2) in December 2009.
Barre-Boulet had tied the score at 3-3 when he scored on a power play at 2:41 of the third period. Barre-Boulet was playing in his eighth NHL game.
Korpisalo skated off the ice following the goal.
Palat scored for the second straight game to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 11:50 of the first period.
Brayden Point retrieved the puck behind the Columbus net and changed directions to create space from Blue Jackets defenseman Mikko Lehtonen. Point then backhanded a pass to Palat at the side of the net and he scored up high.
Vasilevskiy made a strong save on Mikhail Grigorenko later in the opening period, but Grigorenko came back and scored from the high slot on his next shift to tie the score 1-1 at 17:16.
Robinson retrieved the puck behind the Tampa Bay net and scored on a wraparound to move the Blue Jackets ahead 2-1 with 31 seconds left in the first period.
Tampa Bay pulled even at 2-2 when Mathieu Joseph finished off a 2-on-1 with Point at 6:09 of the second period.
Point had three assists.
Columbus scored 55 seconds into the third period to move ahead 3-2.
Max Domi’s shot was blocked by Erik Cernak, but the puck went off to the side and Robinson put it in the net.
Domi and Oliver Bjorkstrand had two assists each for Columbus.
–Field Level Media