J.T. Miller stars in shootout as Tampa Bay Lightning top Calgary Flames 5-4

Ondrej Palat, Steven Stamkos, Alex Killorn and Dan Girardi scored in regulation for the Lightning (27-7-2), who have gone 10-0-1 in their past 11 games.

After the game, Girardi praised Domingue for his stellar performance.

“He clearly won the game for us, obviously,” Girardi said. “He made some huge saves, back-to-back on Monahan (in overtime). It was too many to really count. He was huge for us – in the shootout as well, making some big saves.”

Nikita Kucherov chipped in with a pair of assists. The Lightning now have a 16-0-0 record when Kucherov records a multiple-point game this season.

Johnny Gaudreau and Sam Bennett had a goal and an assist each for the Flames (22-11-3), who led 3-1 after the first period before the Lightning rallied with three straight goals.

After Girardi blasted a point shot past Rittich at 15:35 of the third to put the Lightning up 4-3, Gaudreau backhanded a shot through Domingue’s legs at 17:32 to force overtime.

“I found a way to tie it up and we played really well in overtime,” Gaudreau said. “I thought we had a lot of really good looks — all three pairs or trios. It’s unfortunate, but it was a good game. I’m sure it was entertaining for the fans and it was fun to play in that game.”

Monahan and Mikael Backlund also scored for Calgary, while Rittich made his fourth straight start in net for the Flames and finished with 32 saves.

The Lightning opened the scoring at 3:38 of the first when Palat swatted a loose puck in the crease past Rittich. Kucherov took the initial shot from the slot that hit both Brayden Point and Monahan before bouncing right to Palat for an easy goal.

Bennett pulled the Flames even 51 seconds later with a tap-in goal of his own. Domingue got a piece of Bennett’s first shot, but the puck trickled behind him and the Calgary forward adeptly followed up on the play to tap the loose puck into the net.

Monahan gave Calgary a 2-1 lead at 7:50 when he muscled his way into the slot past Tampa Bay defenceman Braydon Coburn to one-time a pass from Elias Lindholm past Domingue.

Backlund was then the recipient of some hard work by Bennett at 12:25 of the first. Bennett fought hard behind the net to get the puck out front to Backlund, who backhanded his linemate’s pass past Domingue.

Stamkos scored his 18th goal of the season at 3:19 of the second when his pass to teammate Adam Erne went off of Calgary defenceman TJ Brodie and past Rittich.

Killorn then swatted a rebound in behind the Calgary goalie at 5:52 to pull the Lightning into a 3-3 tie.

Lindholm had a great chance to put the Flames back up by a goal just before the eight-minute mark of the third period, but his hard shot hit the post and bounced out of harm’s way.

“I think we showed that we can definitely hold our own,” said Bennett in regards to giving the NHL’s top team all they could handle. “We had a lot of chances there to even win it.

“I thought it was overall a really good game, but that’s unfortunate we didn’t come out on top.”

Notes: Playing in his 700th NHL game, Stamkos scored his 366th career NHL goal to pull past Martin St. Louis (365) for second place on the club’s all-time list. Stamkos now trails just Vincent Lecavalier (383) for most goals in team history. … Bennett and James Neal returned to Calgary’s lineup after being out due to upper-body injuries. Bennett missed a pair of games, while Neal sat out on Saturday in Dallas when the Flames lost 2-0 to the Stars.

Laurence Heinen, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected version of an earlier story. Louis Domingue made 33 saves for Tampa Bay.

by Canadian Press

J.T. Miller stars in shootout as Tampa Bay Lightning top Calgary Flames 5-4

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