Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel scored to cap a wild 10-second span in overtime, and the host Lightning earned their second straight victory by edging the slumping Edmonton Oilers 2-1 on Thursday night.
Edmonton nearly won it in the three-on-three session with a loose puck in front of goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (24 saves), but the big netminder made a toe save on Jack Roslovic, which sent the Lightning up the ice on an odd-man rush.
Fresh off the bench, Guentzel took a pass from Darren Raddysh and potted his sixth career overtime winner as the Lightning won for the 10th time in 13 games.
Nick Paul scored in his season debut after starting on injured reserve with an upper-body ailment.
Edmonton’s Trent Frederic notched his second goal of the season, and goaltender Calvin Pickard stopped 33 shots as Edmonton fell to 2-3-1 on its seven-game road trip.
The visitors put up the first tally behind a clever play by Leon Draisaitl as defenseman Emil Lilleberg tried to clear the puck.
The playmaking Draisaitl stole the pass and zipped it over to Frederic, and the third-line forward scored 1:32 into the game.
The Oilers hamstrung themselves on defense midway through the first period after Curtis Douglas’ hard check leveled Jake Walman, who appeared injured.
Walman eventually came back onto the ice but not before fellow blue-liner Darnell Nurse sought and fought Douglas and received 2-, 5- and 10-minute penalties.
With the net wide open in the first minute of the third period, Pickard leaped across and made a spectacular save on Brandon Hagel’s attempted equalizer.
The Oilers, who played with seven defensemen, lost Alec Regula after he was struck in the side of the helmet near his ear on a long slapshot.
Regula returned in the third, but Walman was out as Edmonton failed to hold on defensively. Paul drove through the right circle and lifted a shot that tied the game at 17:28.
–Field Level Media
