Matthew Knies capped off his hat trick by tapping home a backdoor pass from Auston Matthews in overtime as the Tampa Bay Lightning fought back from an early two-goal deficit to earn a point in the loss in a match-up of the two top teams in the Atlantic Division. Victor Hedman’s late power play goal tied the game, but Anthony Stolarz denied Brayden Point on a breakaway in overtime to set up Knies’ game-winner.
The Lightning might have been the better rested of the two teams, but it was the Leafs that jumped out to an early lead as Mitch Marner and Knies scored 3:33 into the first period. From their on the Lightning found their footing and Nick Perbix halved the deficit with just over a minute to go in the period.
After a scoreless second period, Oliver Bjorkstrand tied the game at two with a power play goal early in the third, but Knies responded 1:13 later with a Maple Leafs power play goal as Emil Lilleberg was serving a double-minor for high-sticking. Both teams volleyed chances, and Hedman found an equalizer from the slot in front of a screened Stolarz.
The overtime was full of kinetic energy as Point had a breakaway that Stolarz kicked away. Andrei Vasilevskiy responded with his own left-pad save as Oliver Ekman-Larsson got behind the defense for his own clean chance. Anthony Cirelli had a shot from a good scoring area go over the net while Nikita Kucherov sent a shot just wide of the post off of a rush. That set the stage for Matthews to find Knies for the game-winner.
With the win, the Maple Leafs opened up a three-point on the Lightning, but the Bolts also opened a three-point lead on the Florida Panthers. They may not have seized their chance to overtake Toronto, but they are still in the Lightning’s sights with just over a week to go in the regular season.
