In Columbus, the Blue Jackets’ Nick Foligno scored a power play goal early in the third period to tie the Tampa Bay Lighting on Thursday.
The Bolts bounced back with a strike in extra time for a 3-2 win.
“[Victor Hedman‘] wheels around and puts it on my tape and I’m able to get enough on it,” Point said. “I didn’t get all of it, but I was lucky enough [that] it kind of bounced the right way and goes in. What a great feed by [Hedman].”
Brayden Point potted the winner at 1:58 of the extra session.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves to get the win.
“We’re pretty used to each other,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “Nine playoff games in the last two years. We’ve played them a lot. So we’re pretty familiar with each other. Same coaches, pretty much the same players.
“And you know what you’re going to get with Columbus. They defend, they play hard, it’s tough to get on the inside. We had to play with a lot of discipline in our game to make sure we’re in these games. Tonight was another example.”
Oliver Bjorkstrand also scored for Columbus when he staked the Jackets to a 1-0 lead.
“It was nice to get that first one,” Bjorkstrand said. “We just needed to build off that.”
Blake Coleman and Mathieu Joseph scored to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead.
Joonas Korpisalo made 34 saves in the loss.
Columbus’ Pierre-Luc Dubois played 3:55 for the entire game.
“I’ve told you many times, I really don’t make decisions as far as minutes, it’s up to the player to show me,” Blue Jackets Head coach John Tortorella said after the game. “And if there’s one thing I’m pretty easy to read on is the minutes. You’re going to get out there, if you play and if you play the proper way you’re going to get back out there. The onus is on the player and all players, not just the player we’re talking about here that sat. It’s all the players, and I’m not a hard guy to read as far as that’s concerned.”
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