TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The Tampa Bay Lightning won a game they probably should have lost.
Victor Hedman scored his second goal of the game 46 seconds into overtime, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves and the Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Wednesday night.
Tampa Bay was held to a season-low 16 shots,
“We’ve played a lot of games the last month and a half where we felt we deserved a better fate and didn’t get it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “And tonight was probably one where, maybe, it was just reversed a little bit.”
Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov also scored to help the Lightning improve to 7-1-2 in the last 10 games.
“I think sluggish is probably a little bit of an understatement, especially that the first period,” Hedman said. “Sometimes you lose games you feel like you should have won, and today was one of those where probably I wouldn’t argue if they came out with the two points.”
Noah Hanifin, Derek Ryan and Jay McClement scored for Carolina, and Eddie Lack stopped 12 shots. The Hurricanes are 1-5-3 in their last nine.
“I liked our effort,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said.
Hedman lifted a shot over Lack during a 2-on-1 during the extra session. Kucherov got his second assist on the play, and has 12 points over the last four games.
Kucherov gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead at 15:18 of the third, and McClement tied it with 2:37 left on Carolina’s seventh short-handed goal of the season.
Tampa Bay pulled tied it at 2 midway through the third when Johnson jumped to avoid Jake Dotchin’s point shot that went off his skate and into the net.
Carolina dominated the first, outshooting Tampa Bay 18-4, but led just 2-1 due a number of strong saves by Vasilevskiy.
After Hedman had a power-play goal eight minutes in, Hanifin tied it on his first goal in 36 games on a shot three minutes later that was deflected by Kucherov.
Ryan made it 2-1 at 14:54, stopping a 15-game pointless streak and 16-game goal drought with a power-play goal redirected off Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr’s stick.
Tampa Bay remained active before Wednesday afternoon’s trade deadline, sending center Valtteri Filppula to Philadelphia. Filppula is signed through next season at a salary-cap hit of $5 million.
“I look at our day (Tuesday at Florida), we traded a guy basically at the pregame meal and came out flat,” Peters said. “They traded a guy (Wednesday afternoon) and they came out flat. They’re humans, so it has an impact on you..”
The Filppula deal clears more cap space for the Lightning, who earlier in the week traded goaltender Ben Bishop and center Brian Boyle.
NOTES: Carolina LW Jeff Skinner missed his second straight game due to a stiff neck but could return for Friday night’s game against Arizona. … Hurricanes LW Brock McGinn, hurt in Tuesday’s game at Florida, sat out with an upper-body injury.
UP NEXT:
Hurricanes: After hosting the Coyotes on Friday, the two teams play again Sunday in Arizona.
Lightning: Start a two-game trip Friday night at Pittsburgh.
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