Lightning rally past Kings for 3-2 win in OT Tampa rally with two goals in third to tie, win it in OT

In Tampa, the Lightning roared back from a 2-0 deficit to the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night, with two goals in the third period, and completed the rally when Nick Perbix hit for the game-winner at 2:02 of extra time.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves in the win.

The match was Tampa Bay’s coach Jon Cooper’s 500th career NHL game.

“I never thought I’d coach one game in this league, let alone win 500 of them; it sneaks up on you,” Cooper said. “It’s a privilege to be in this league. I’m extremely fortunate to be in this situation with the ownership and the management that’s in place. My trust in them and their trust in me, I think that’s a big reason why this has worked for a decade.”

The Lightning broke out of a four-loss in six-game stretch, and improved to 20-17-5.

Tyler Motte got the Lightning on the board at 12:37 of the third period when a shot frm the high slot for a 2-1 count on the board.

Brandon Hagel forced the extra session when he connected at 15:39.

“I think we played really well all around,” Hagel said. “They got a couple of rush goals, a little confusion from us. But at the end of the day we didn’t feel like we were being outplayed, so we just stuck with it in the third period, and we know the result.”

The Kings dropped to 20-10-7, and have lost six straight.

“A couple of critical mistakes, and all of sudden the game is in overtime,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “The difference between winning and losing is just a sliver of a moment or a play. We’re still finding ourselves on the wrong side. I thought we played a better game tonight than we did in Washington (4-3 loss on Sunday), so maybe we’re working our way out of it.”

After a scoreless first period, LA broke through in the middle frame with a pair of strikes.

Phillip Danault broke a 12-game goal drought at 11:31of the second period to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.

Matt Roy pushed the lead to 2-0 at 14:27 off a wrist shot.

“We know we’re a good team, we can get the lead and we can play with the lead,” Roy said. “For some reason, it’s just not working right now. We need to figure it out and stick to the details that help us win. Hopefully in the next game (at the Florida Panthers on Thursday) we can have a good effort and come out with a win.”

Cam Talbot made 26 saves in the loss.