ANAHEIM — Brayden Point scored 35 seconds into overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 2-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Monday.
Point and Nikita Kucherov each had a goal and an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy won his 100th NHL game with 35 saves for the Lightning (31-7-2), who finished a month without a regulation loss for the second time in Tampa Bay history (13-0-1), joining the 2003-04 team that went 6-0-1 in October.
The Lightning are 14-0-1 since losing 3-1 to the Ducks on Nov. 27.
[WATCH: All Lightning vs. Ducks highlights]
“Got to give the boys credit in there, they had a pretty productive December,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Especially the amount of goals we’ve given up here in the last little bit, to play the way we did tonight and only give up one against a really good hockey team, it was pretty satisfying.”
Nick Ritchie scored, and John Gibson made 33 saves for Anaheim (19-15-7), which has lost six games in a row, the past two in the first minute of overtime.
“I thought the effort level was there,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “We had a few mental errors, obviously, throughout the game, and those things happen. Our goaltender made some good saves, so we showed strides tonight, but we have to get better.”
Kucherov, who extended his point streak to 11 games with his sixth straight multipoint game, slid a pass from the neutral zone to Point at the Anaheim blue line. Point held off Ducks defenseman Brandon Montour as he skated through the slot, and then lifted a backhand over Gibson’s right pad for his Lightning-high 23rd goal.
Kucherov gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead with his 19th goal at 6:06 of the first period.
Video: TBL@ANA: Kucherov finishes nifty passing play
The Ducks were outshooting the Lightning 6-1 and had spent most of the first six minutes in the Tampa Bay zone when Point received a pass at his blue line and skated down the left side into the Anaheim zone. He pulled up between the left face-off circle and blue line before passing to Erik Cernak, who was trailing the play. Cernak then backhanded a pass through the slot to Kucherov for a one-timer.
“Long travel day yesterday and kind of an early start, so it looked like we were in quicksand a little bit in the beginning,” Cooper said. “Give Anaheim credit, they were on us.”
The Ducks went 9:12 without a shot on goal before it had 10 over the final 5:49 of the first period, including Ritchie’s goal to tie the game 1-1 at 17:08.
Video: TBL@ANA: Ritchie buries nifty feed from Kase
Vasilevskiy had just made a save against Adam Henrique when Ritchie retrieved the puck in the corner and sent it back to defenseman Josh Mahura at the left point. Mahura passed to Ondrej Kase along the wall, and Kase skated into the left circle before feeding a wide-open Ritchie in front of the net.
“We’re going to need more efforts like this as we go forward,” Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. “If we continue to work as hard as we did tonight and execute just a touch higher, we’ll have some success here.”
Video: EA Sports Overtime Winner: Point leads Lightning
They said it
“We turned a few pucks over in the first and it cost us, but we really managed the puck and the game well from the second period on. When the game did break down a little bit, you saw two of the best goalies in the game put on a little bit of a show today, so it had a little bit of everything.” — Lightning coach Jon Cooper
“We played against a hockey club with a lot of skill. I liked our attitude as far as starting on time. I thought we had a bit of a flat period in the second. We started to watch the game and they kind of took over, but I thought we rallied in the third and gave ourselves a chance.” — Ducks coach Randy Carlyle
Need to know
Vasilevskiy got his 100th win in his 175th game, the fastest in Lightning history. … Kucherov has 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in his 11-game point streak. … Point has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in a seven-game point streak. … Kase has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in the past 10 games. … Ritchie has five points (one goal, four assist) in the past three games. … Montour had an NHL career-high seven hits. … The Ducks went to overtime for the 14th time this season, tied with the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings for most in the NHL.
What’s next
Lightning: At the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday (10:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN, SN360, FS-W, SUN, NHL.TV)
Ducks: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday (10 p.m. ET; SN, FS-W, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)
from A Viral Update http://bit.ly/2AlJymI
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