Stamkos, Lightning top Hurricanes in OT, keep pace in Atlantic

TAMPA --Steven Stamkos scored 52 seconds into overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.

Stamkos scored with a wrist shot from the high slot off a pass from Nikita Kucherov for Tampa Bay's third power-play goal of the game in four opportunities.
"I love when we score in overtime," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "That's the thunder, you can really feel it."
Stamkos scored his 30th goal of the season and had two assists, Brayden Point had a goal and an assist, and Kucherov had three assists for the Lightning (42-18-6), who have won three straight. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves.

The Lightning are in second place in the Atlantic Division. They remain one point ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs for third and six points behind the Florida Panthers for first.
"We want to be playing good down the stretch and into the playoffs," Stamkos said. "Panic has never set in with this group. We're just trying to figure things out. Sometimes it takes a while. We'd rather have some of those hiccups this time of year than a month from now."
Nino Niederreiter, Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes (44-15-8), who went 2-0-1 on a three-game road trip. Antti Raanta made 28 saves.
Carolina was coming off a 6-1 win at the Washington Capitals on Monday. The Hurricanes remain in first place in the Metropolitan Division, five points ahead of the New York Rangers.
"At the end of the day I could tell, the first shift we were gassed," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Guys tried their hardest, but we were so slow to everything. We had a chance to win the game. Give credit to 'Raants.' He kind of held us in there."
Niederreiter put the Hurricanes up 1-0 at 7:59 of the first period with a chip in front of the net off a pass from Jordan Staal.
"I think in the first period we were doing a good job at getting pucks deep," Raanta said. "And whenever we did that we pretty much scored. Obviously they scored three power-play goals today, so I can be much better in there. Five points out of six (on the trip), we'll take that and get back home and get ready for Thursday."

Alex Killorn tied it 1-1 at 52 seconds of the second period with a power-play goal.
Jarvis put the Hurricanes ahead 2-1 at 8:41 when he redirected Teuvo Teravainen's pass out of the air.
Victor Hedman tied it 2-2 at 9:43 from the slot, beating Raanta high on the glove side.
"Guys are shooting," Point said. "We're just kind of ... not trying to take every opportunity and trying for the perfect play. We're getting pucks on net and converging."
Aho gave the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead at 16:47 with a redirection of a Tony DeAngelo shot.
Point tied it 3-3 at 6:02 of the third period with a power-play goal, scoring on the rebound of Stamkos' shot.
"We responded well, we were down pretty much the whole game until the end," Cooper said. "Especially in the third period. We didn't give them anything in the third and the power play came up big."
NOTES: Stamkos scored 30 goals for the seventh time in his 14th NHL seasons, passing Martin St. Louis for the most 30-goal seasons for the Lightning. He has scored seven points (three goals, four assists) during a four-game point streak. Stamkos scored the 11th overtime goal of his NHL career, passing St. Louis for the most in Tampa Bay history. … Hurricanes forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi is out indefinitely after leaving the game Monday with an undisclosed injury following a check by Capitals forward Lars Eller. Brind'Amour said he'd know more about the extent of the injury Wednesday. ... Aho has scored five points (three goals, two assists) during a five-game point streak and reached the 30-goal mark for the third time in his six NHL seasons. ... Jarvis has scored eight points (five goals, three assists) in the past seven games.