Steven Stamkos scored his second goal of the game on a power play 34 seconds into overtime and the Tampa Bay Lightning recovered after blowing a two-goal lead in the third period to beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-4 on Saturday night.
Coming off a shootout loss in Edmonton on Friday, Tampa Bay managed only one third-period shot before getting a power play with 37 seconds left. Stamkos converted the first shot of overtime, whipping a one-timer from between the top of the circles into the top corner for his 24th goal of the season.
Henrik Sedin scored a sharp-angle, power-play goal midway through the third, and defenseman Keith Ballard tied the game on a long wrist shot with 5:47 left as the Canucks came back from two goals down late for the second straight game. They beat Anaheim in a shootout Wednesday.
Teddy Purcell, Nate Thompson and Brett Clark also scored, and Martin St. Louis and Ryan Malone each added two assists as Tampa Bay won in Vancouver for the first time in franchise history. Dan Ellis made 23 saves for the Lightning, who are 1-9-2 in Vancouver.
Identical twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin each had a goal and an assist, and Manny Malhotra also scored for the Canucks, who have lost two of three at home. Rookie backup Cory Schneider, making his first start since Nov. 15, stopped 19 shots and added two assists for Vancouver.
Sedin and Thompson traded first-period goals, and Clark put Tampa Bay ahead 1:05 into the second, pinching into the slot to bang in a power-play rebound.
Stamkos, who ended a six-game goal drought Friday, scored his 23rd goal of the season on a lucky deflection 2 minutes later. Defenseman Mike Lundin's high point shot hit Stamkos' arm at the top of the crease and bounced under a leaping Schneider.
Malhotra closed the gap with a power-play tip of his own 2 minutes after that, but there was nothing lucky about how Stamkos helped restore the two-goal cushion with 7 minutes left in the period. The 20-year-old scoring sensation won a race for the puck, spun away from Kevin Bieksa's check behind the Vancouver net and fed Purcell in the slot for a one-timer through Schneider's legs.
Stamkos has 24 goals and 44 points, second only to Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby in both categories.
Ellis, who was critical of Edmonton's Linus Omark's flashy spin move that beat him for the winning shootout goal Friday, got a bad break on the opening goal midway through the first period. Jones swiped at Daniel Sedin's centering pass on a 2-on-1 and accidentally knocked it past Ellis. He recovered with good stops on Raffi Torres' breakaway and a point-blank save against Ballard in the second period, but gave up two goals on six shots in the third as Henrik Sedin snapped a sharp-angle shot over his shoulder and Ballard scored from long range.
Ballard collected the puck in front of his own net, skated the length of the ice and snapped a shot from the top of the faceoff circle that went through the legs of defenseman Randy Jones and past Ellis on the blocker side.
