Lightning defeat Maple Leafs in shootout, extend Atlantic lead

TAMPA -- The Tampa Bay Lightning extended their lead in the Atlantic Division to five points with a 4-3 shootout win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amalie Arena on Monday.
Chris Kunitz, Tyler Johnson and Adam Erne scored goals and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for Tampa Bay (43-17-3), which has won four in a row. The Lightning lead the NHL with 89 points.
"It was a great effort. We had some emotion in the game," Kunitz said. "Guys did a great job of rallying together when we were short a guy up front, and [Vasilevskiy] was once again the best player on the ice."

WATCH: [All Maple Leafs vs. Lightning highlights]
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov left the game in the first period because of an upper-body injury. Kucherov is the League's top scorer with 82 points (33 goals, 49 assists).
After Vasilevskiy denied Marner on a penalty shot at 13:58 of the third period, Brayden Point scored the only goal in the shootout for the Lightning when he beat Frederik Andersen with a wrist shot to the stick side.
"He's amazing," Lightning forward Yanni Gourde said. "[Point] uses his speed and he got the puck away so quick that the goalie didn't expect it. He's always ready to shoot."
James van Riemsdyk, Mitchell Marner and Tyler Bozak scored for the Maple Leafs (39-20-6), who had won five straight games. Andersen made 39 saves. The Maple Leafs are two points ahead of the Boston Bruins for second in the Atlantic; Boston has played five fewer games.
"Us three teams, I think we're all really good teams," Bozak said. "It's going to be a tough test for the rest of the year to see who can finish where, and obviously we're going to try and push and get up as high in the standings as we can."

Erne gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead at 15:18 of the second period when he dragged the puck to the hash marks and scored with a shot to the far post.
Bozak tied the game 3-3 at 5:27 of the third period with a power-play goal off a cross-ice feed from Marner.
The Lightning took a 1-0 lead at 1:41 of the first period with Kunitz's 11th goal of the season, a deflection off a shot from Andrej Sustr.
Toronto tied it 1-1 at 8:49 of the first period when van Riemsdyk redirected Ron Hainsey's shot past Vasilevskiy.
Marner scored at 9:52 of the first period with a goal that deflected off his skate to make it 2-1.
"We don't want to be a team that just rolls over, especially when you're down," Marner said. "I thought it was good compete from us. Obviously not the outcome we want, but in the third I thought we pushed back."
Johnson tied it 2-2 at 3:52 of the second period with his 18th goal of the season, a wraparound after Andersen made a save on his initial shot.
"It was two teams that wanted to win a hockey game, that was pretty clear," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "It was fast, both teams competed. It had pretty much everything."

Goal of the Game

Erne's goal at 15:18 of the second period.

Save of the Game

Vasilevskiy against Patrick Marleau at 1:55 of the overtime.

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Highlight of the Game

Marner's penalty shot against Vasilevskiy at 13:58 of the third period.

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They said it

"This wasn't one of our better games by any means. I thought we started good. I thought they were better than us in the second period. Both teams had chances, both teams hit posts and stuff like team. You know, they're a good team and it's always great to get a point, but I didn't think this was one of our better games." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock
"That was the kind of atmosphere you wanted to have tonight. It felt like a little playoff hockey and it was one of our better games of the year." -- Lightning defenseman Dan Girardi

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Need to know

The Lightning are hopeful Kucherov will be able to play against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, according to the Tampa Bay Times. … Vasilevskiy won his League-leading 37th game and moved into a tie with Ben Bishop for second place for the most wins in a season by a Lightning goalie. Bishop holds the record with 40, set in 2014-15. ... Forward Tomas Plekanec, who was acquired from the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday, was minus-1 in 11:38 of ice time in his Maple Leafs debut.

What's next

Maple Leafs: At the Florida Panthers on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-F, TSN4, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, SUN, MSG-B, NHL.TV)