@jayRecher

Good luck sleeping tonight.

Brayden Point scored with 1:56 left in overtime & Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in Game 6 to force a deciding Game 7 on Saturday night in Toronto.

Point found a rebound of an Alex Killorn shot from the slot & slid it past Maple Leafs netminder Jack Campbell to send the fans at Amalie Arena home happy.

It was a pretty even game for the majority of the 1st period. For over sixteen minutes there was nary a goal nor a penalty.

Then at 16:07, coincidental minors to Justin Holl (tripping) & Nick Paul (embellishment) opened up the ice with some four-on-four action, which led to the first goal of the evening.

After an inexplicable turnover by Alex Kerfoot in the neutral zone, Ondrej Palat picked up the loose puck, raced into the offensive zone & snapped one past Campbell at 17:38 to put the Lightning up 1-0.

The Lightning doubled their lead with a shorthanded tally at 10:46 on one of the prettiest goals you're going to see all year.

Following a hooking call to Cal Foote the Leafs were pushing for the equalizer, but Anthony Cirelli picked off a pass in the neutral zone, sped into the Toronto zone, did a spin-a-rama on Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano and in one motion fired one past Campbell to give the Bolts a 2-0 lead.

The fans were going crazy in the stands and media members in both press boxes were shaking their head in amazement.

And then less than a minute later, the lead was cut in half.

Auston Matthews scored on a tip out in front at 11:40 to make it 2-1, and even though the Lightning got some good chances, Campbell continued to make stop after stop until Toronto silenced the Amalie Arena crowd in the final minute of the period.

John Tavares scored two goals in 26 seconds, the second coming with 33.7 seconds left in the period to give the Leafs a 3-2 lead heading into the second intermission.

The tension was so thick in the arena that you could cut it with a knife, but a couple of errant sticks helped the Lightning get back in it.

High sticking calls to David Kampf & Alex Kerfoot gave Tampa Bay a 5-on-3 for 1:45 just shy of the midway point of the 3rd, and the Bolts were able to cash in.

With five forwards on the ice for the power play, Nikita Kucherov fired a wrister from the point that beat Campbell to tie the score 3-3 at 9:20.

The play was pretty even throughout the rest of regulation & in overtime before the game-winner from Point.

Campbell had another solid game, stopping 31 of 35 shots in defeat.

*****

SCORING SUMMARY

1st Period

Tampa Bay - Palat - (Unassisted) - 17:38

2nd Period

Tampa Bay - SHG - Cirelli - (Unassisted) - 10:46
Toronto - Matthews - (Giordano, Nylander) - 11:40
Toronto - Tavares - (Spezza, Kase) - 19:26
Toronto - Tavares (2) - (Nylander, Kerfoot) - 19:52

3rd Period

Tampa Bay - PPG - Kucherov - (Point, Stamkos) - 9:20

Overtime

Tampa Bay - Point - (Killorn, Hagel) - 18:04

*****

PENALTY SUMMARY

1st Period

Toronto - Holl - (Tripping) - 16:07
Tampa Bay - Paul - (Embellishment) - 16:07
Toronto - Rielly - (Tripping) - 19:32

2nd Period

Tampa Bay - Foote - (Hooking) - 9:02

3rd Period

Toronto - Kampf - (High Sticking) - 8:02
Toronto - Kerfoot - (High Sticking) - 8:18

Overtime

NONE

*****

What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Saturday night as they travel to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs in a winner-take-all Game 7. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm with the pregame show starting at 6:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA & Lightning Power Play on the iHeartRadio app.

The Larry Timko Show