The Tampa Bay Lightning’s Brayden Point on Wednesday scored at 5 minutes, 12 seconds into overtime to lift them over the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 and into the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Lightning won the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series 4-1.
Their second-round foe in the isolation bubble in Toronto is still to be decided depending on other matchup results.
Photo: AFP
Second seed Tampa Bay improved to 6-2 in bubble games this month that marked the NHL’s return from a March 12 shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Lightning avenged a four-game sweep loss to Columbus in last year’s opening round.
“It’s funny how the hockey gods work,” Tampa coach Jon Cooper said. “To go through what we did last year and then have the pause and everything that’s happened. To still end up playing the same team, it’s easy to sit up here and say you wanted them now — but it was good to get them and good to get this result.”
Point’s four goals in the series also included the game winner at 10:27 of the fifth overtime in Game 1, providing a 3-2 triumph to conclude the fourth-longest game in Stanley Cup Playoff history.
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy made 37 saves, including 22 in the second period when the Blue Jackets scored twice and set a team record for shots in a period of a playoff game.
The Boston Bruin’s Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves and David Pastrnak had two assists in his return as they defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 to win their best-of-seven series in five games.
Nick Suzuki scored the winner as the Montreal Canadiens staved off first-round elimination with a 5-3 win over top-seeds the Philadelphia Flyers. Montreal’s Game 5 victory cut the Flyers’ series lead to 3-2. The number eight seeded Canadiens will try to level the series and force a game seven with a win on Friday in Toronto.
In Edmonton, Tyler Motte scored twice as the Vancouver Canucks rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the St. Louis Blues 4-3 and take a 3-2 edge in their series.
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