Point & Shattenkirk Star as Lightning Take 3-1 Stanley Cup Series Lead

It didn’t start that well for the Tampa Bay Lightning, but it ended much better. On a screened shot from the right side in overtime, Kevin Shattenkirk put one past the Dallas Stars goalie Anton Khudobin for a 5-4 Lightning win. Khudobin had made 27 saves during regulation time for the Stars, who were outshot 31-28. The Lighting carried much of the play when the teams were 5 X 5.

Related: Tampa Bay’s Kevin Shattenkirk: One Team’s Trash Is Another Team’s Gold

Two Lightning Heroes

Another Lightning hero was Brayden Point, who scored two goals during Friday’s Game 4 win over the Stars. The Lightning went down by two goals late in the first period, but Shattenkirk got his first point of the evening when he threw Point a breakaway pass. Point deposited the goal to help the Lightning get back into the game with less than a minute left to play in the period.

Early in the second period, the Lightning had an early power play and Point scored again when a played Brandon Lowe (from the Tampa Bay Rays) and hit the puck out of the air into the goal to tie up the game 2-2.

Point Is Stacking Up the Points

Point now has scored 23 points in his last 14 games, and now has 13 goals and 30 points in 21 postseason games. If the Lightning can win the Stanley Cup on a quick turnaround on Saturday night, the 24-year-old center will likely be named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner. With his team ahead in this series three games to one, the Lightning are on the verge.

Related: Stamkos Scores in Return to Lightning Lineup

Shattenkirk From the Scrapheap to an On-Ice Leader

Shattenkirk, who not long ago was answering a phone with the New York Rangers telling him they no longer wanted his services, scored the game-winning goal. As noted, he also had an assist on Point’s first-period marker.

The overtime goal was a seeing-eye goal that beat to goalie on the far side. Shattenkirk now has scored points in three straight games, and the veteran defenseman has now scored three goals and totaled 13 points in 23 postseason games.

Other than Shattenkirk’s goal and Point’s two goals, Yanni Gourde and Alex Killorn scored the others.