Wednesday, 4 a.m.
This time, the puck crashed into the net before Anthony Cirelli did.
Oh, Cirelli had his normal wreckage on the play. But the puck hit the net just before Cirelli plowed into goaltender Marcus Hogberg as time ran out in overtime for a 4-3 victory. There were only 12.7 seconds left in the overtime period.
This season, Cirelli has had two goals disallowed because of goaltender interference.
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This time, his sprawling goal gave the Bolts their 17th win of the season.
"Will us the two points? That’s what he did," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "What a burst. Especially (since) he was north of 20 minutes tonight, so to have that energy in the 64th minute of the game, that was pretty impressive.
"We’ve been getting that out of him since he's been with this team. You reward him with ice time, and he gives us plays like that."
Cirelli admitted that he was nervous that this goal would be disallowed, too.
The Bolts took a 3-1 lead early in the second period, but allowed Ottawa to fight back to tie. Nikita Kucherov, Cedric Paquette and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning.
Mark Borowiecki, Connor Brown and Anthony Duclair scored for the Senators, who were coming off a 6-1 loss Monday night at Florida. Hogberg, playing in his third game this season and seventh overall, stopped 36 shots.
Tampa Bay plays Dallas on Thursday night Amalie Arena. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m.
