TAMPA, Fla. _ For the second time in three games, the Lightning needed more than 65 minutes. Tampa Bay and Vegas went into shootout on Tuesday night, as the Lightning and Islanders did on Friday.
On Tuesday, however, the Lightning couldn't pull out another win. Tampa Bay survived a too-many-men penalty with 2:22 left in overtime. But not the shootout. Alex Tuch got one past Andrei Vasilevskiy to give Vegas a 3-2 win.
Brayden Point put the Lightning on the board 6:36 into the game. He pounced on Nikita Kucherov's rebound and sent it past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Mathieu Joseph added another in the second, though he needed an assist from the situation room in Toronto. Colin Miller ran into Joseph, sending him into Fleury. Joseph still managed to get his stick on the puck, which had deflected off Miller's skate on a shot by Steven Stamkos.
The referee originally waved the goal off, but the Lightning challenged the call. The officials back in Toronto ruled "the actions of Vegas' Colin Miller caused Mathieu Joseph to contact Marc-Andre Fleury before the puck crossed the goal line."
The Golden Knights responded quickly, however. Jon Merrill sent a long outlet pass from behind the net to Cody Eakin at the far blue line. Eakin beat Andrei Vasilevskiy on the breakaway.
Early in the third period, Vegas tied it up. Valentin Zykov battled off Braydon Coburn and sent the puck over to William Karlsson, who backhanded it back to Zykov. The winger finished for his first goal of the season.
Vasilevskiy did some Vasilevskiy things late in the third period to keep the game tied up. He made back-to-back saves on Eakin and Tomas Nosek, then another on Max Pacioretty without a stick. Each of the three was impressive, the combination was pure Vasilevskiy.
