Tampa Bay Lightning barely escape with 6-5 overtime victory against San Jose Sharks -NHL Update
San Jose was the favourite team going into the matchup against Tampa Bay, but to everyone’s surprise, the Lightning barely managed to escape the death hold of the Sharks with an overtime game-winner, 6-5, on Thursday night, February 16, 2012, at the Tampa
Bay Times Forum in Florida.
Tampa Bay took the lead later on the first period and rallied in the third, but it still was not enough to take down a rowdy San Jose team that was eyeing a second straight win.
"In the second period we hurt ourselves in the first 10 minutes," Tampa Bay Lightning head coach, Guy Boucher, said. "We turned the puck over on the blue line over and over again so that’s how they got their momentum, but we came back in the third and in
the overtime. We had a lot of difference makers tonight, and that’s what makes a team."
Logan Couture picked up the first goal of the night for his 24th of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season in the opening minutes while Steven Stamkos and Teddy Purcell added two straight for Tampa Bay to take the lead, 2-1.
San Jose rebounded in the second period as Michal Handzus, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Colin White each added a goal while Lightning’s Steve Downie scored a crucial goal in between to keep the team alive.
Luckily, Tampa Bay bounced back and added two straight via Stamkos and Martin St. Louis nearly midway through, taking the lead by one point but it was San Jose’s Tommy Wingels who made the equaliser at the 14:50 mark to force an overtime extension.
Struggling to get above the playoffs division line has been the fighting force for Tampa Bay and it looks like it helped them tonight.
"If we throw in the towel because of what's going on around us, it's going to be a pretty miserable last two months," St. Louis said. "I think we have enough character here we can build on tonight."
Martin St. Louis picked up his second goal of the night as he added the game-winner with 33 seconds to play in overtime.
Tampa Bay has the next at home against Washington Capitals on Saturday while San Jose plays the next in Carolina against the Hurricanes on Friday.
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