Lightning recover for 4-3 skills win over Dallas

In Dallas, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov scored 41 seconds apart late in the third period to rally the Stars back for a 3-3 tie with the Tampa Bay Lightning to force extra time.

Dallas rescued the loser’s point in a 4-3 loss to the Bolts on penalties.

“Great point. Any points you can get when you’re chasing a playoff position is important,” Dallas head coach Rick Bowness said. “Especially after that first period, which was probably our worst period of the year. We battled back. We didn’t quit. There’s a lot of fight in this hockey club.”

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves in the win.

“We’re happy we got a point, [but] I wish we would’ve got two,” Benn said. “We’re never out of the game; just a group of guys that don’t quit. Obviously we don’t want to be coming back too much down the stretch, but it’s nice to see we still got some fight.”

Ross Colton and Brayden Point had goals in the skills competition.

“I was a little disappointed in some of the way we’ve played in the past week,” Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. “Puck management issues with our game that I think was leading us down a bad path. We addressed that [Monday] and today about how we need to play to have success. For a lot of the game, I thought that’s what we did.”

Point scored in regulation to give Tampa a 1-0 lead in the opening frame.

Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen tied it up, 1-1, in the second period.

.”First period wasn’t good enough, [but] we started skating and started forechecking. We are a great forechecking team,” Heiskanen said. “That was the turning point in this game, I think. [Oettinger] was great in the first period and the whole game for us.”

Victor Hedman picked up an assist for the Lightning in the win, his 500th NHL point.

“[500 points] means the world,” Hedman said. “This has been my home for a long time and there’s nowhere else I want to be. I want to keep winning. To reach milestones is always fun. That’s a big milestone and hopefully some more to come.”

Tampa’s Mathieu Joseph  scored in the middle frame as well for a 2-1 lead.

“We didn’t get rewarded off the start; we could have scored more in that first period,” the Lightning’s Pat Maroon said. “Their goalie stood tall. You have to tip your cap sometimes. But I knew we were going to break through. It was just a matter of time.”

Steve Stamkos pushed the lead to 3-1 in the third period ahead of the Dallas rally.

Jake Oettinger made 33 saves. in the loss.