Eurolanche

Lightning defeat Avalanche in overtime

Jonathan Drouin scored at 2:27 of overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center on Sunday.

Drouin stole the puck from Matt Nieto in the Avalanche end and put a move on goalie Calvin Pickard before scoring inside the right post for his 17th goal.

"He's a gifted, gifted player," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "You get him that close to the net with the puck, a little bit of time and space, he can do some pretty magical things."

The Lightning (26-24-8) are five points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They are 4-0-2 in their past six games and 3-0-3 in their past six on the road.

"I was gassed," Drouin said. "Keep the puck, get it off, get it off. I made a move and sent it through. It's one move, go one way and hopefully [Pickard] bites on that move, and I think he did a bit."

The Avalanche (16-38-3) got third-period goals from Mikko Rantanen at 2:46 and Matt Duchene with 41.9 seconds remaining after Pickard went to the bench for a sixth skater.

The Lightning also squandered a 2-0 lead Saturday in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars.

"We needed that [extra] point, definitely [after] blowing that two-goal lead in the third period as well," Drouin said. "We made sure we got that point and leave here off a back-to-back with three points."

Ben Bishop made 27 saves for Tampa Bay but had little chance to prevent Duchene's tying goal. Duchene, who had gone 13 games without a goal, scored his 16th of the season with a shot from the right circle that caromed into the net off Lightning defensemen Victor Hedman and Jack Dotchin.

"They double-blocked it into the net," Duchene said. "It was nice to get a good bounce. I've been snakebitten lately, so it was nice to have a cheap one go in."

Bishop has allowed five goals during his four-game winning streak.

"I can't stress enough how much this extra point tonight helps," he said. "Obviously you want to get that extra point [Saturday], but when you can get three out of four points instead of two out of four it's a big difference."

The Lightning took a 1-0 lead at 18:18 of the first period on a goal by Brayden Point, his eighth. When Hedman passed to Alex Killorn at the bottom of the right circle, Pickard moved to that side and Killorn fed Point in the slot for a quick shot into an open net. Pickard made 37 saves.

Vladislav Namestnikov made it 2-0 at 10:09 of the second period with his first goal in 10 games and seventh of the season. Valtteri Filppula passed to Namestnikov, who skated along the left wing and shot between Pickard's pads.

"We played a good game," Bishop said. "We could have scored a couple more, [Pickard] played well. Obviously they got a little lucky the last one. [Drouin] came up big in overtime. He wasn't going to be denied on that shift, he was on a mission there and [I'm] happy to see him get the goal there."

-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --