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The Ducks fought back in the third period to earn a point, but fell 4-3 in a shootout to the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at Amalie Arena.

NHL GAMECENTER | DUCKS STREAM

The loss dropped Anaheim to 18-22-5 on the season and 1-3-1 heading to the finale of a season-long six-game road trip.

Leo Carlsson, Robby Fabbri and Troy Terry scored for the Ducks, as Anaheim remains unbeaten in regulation this season when scoring at least three goals. Ryan Strome, Brian Dumoulin, Mason McTavish, Jacob Trouba and Pavel Mintyukov tallied assists. Lukas Dostal turned aside 34-of-37 Tampa Bay shots in his 26th start of the season.

Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel scored for the hosts, with Guentzel adding the shootout winner, helping the Bolts improve to 24-16-3 on the season. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy earned his 19th win of the year with 34 saves and stops on all three Anaheim shootout attempts.

Anaheim went ahead first six minutes into the action on a fortunate bounce in the Tampa Bay slot. Seconds after the Ducks had completed the game's first penalty kill, Strome tried to fire a puck on net from the left circle, and had his bid blocked by the stick of defenseman Nick Perbix. The carrom then hit Terry driving the net though and trickled over the line just barely out of the reach of the outstretched Vasilevskiy.

Terry's goal marked his 264th career point, all with Anaheim, tying Scott Niedermayer and Adam Henrique for 10th-most in team history. Terry leads the Ducks with 34 points in 41 appearances this season, including six in his last five games.

McTavish very nearly made it 2-0 a few minutes later on a rebound chance in tight, pulling the puck to his backhand and lifting a shot from the side of the net, but this time Vasilevskiy got across in time to rob the stunned young forward.

McTavish had played each of his first 38 games this season at center, but tonight skated on left wing alongside Carlsson and Alex Killorn.

Tampa would then make good on its goaltender's big stop too, whipping the puck around the perimeter on another power-play chance with Brandon Hagel eventually feeding Cirelli for a backdoor tap-in.

With the secondary helper, veteran defenseman and captain Viktor Hedman became the first player in franchise history with 600 assists as a Bolt. Hedman is also one of just four Swedish blueliners in NHL history to achieve to the milestone, joining Nicklas Lidstrom, Erik Karlsson and Borje Salming.

Guentzel put the Bolts in front early in the second on the first of back-to-back power plays, punching home a rebound that had snuck through Dostal and sat free in the crease.

Signed to a long-term free agent contract last summer, Guentzel is second among Lightning team leaders with 21 goals in 42 games this season. Ten of those goals have come on the power play, third-most in the NHL.

Despite the special teams struggles, Anaheim would pull back even off a strong 5-on-5 forecheck. McTavish poked the puck free, finding space in the right wing corner before delivering a short pass to Carlsson in the near faceoff circle. Carlsson then got rid of his shot in a hurry, beating Vasilevskiy up over the glove to tie the game at two.

Leo Carlsson scores off a centering pass from Mason McTavish

That level score would last only a couple of minutes though, as a wild 4-on-4 situation ultimately led to Tampa reclaiming the lead on a sequence much like the end of the first period - albeit after a bit of a delay. With both Hagel and Ducks captain Radko Gudas in the penalty box, Strome was an inch from putting the Ducks ahead 3-2, only to be denied with another brilliant lunging save by Vasilveskiy. Moments later, much like they did in the first, the Bolts quickly made the Ducks pay for the missed opportunity. This time, it was Paul with the go-ahead goal as the versatile veteran cut inside off the rush and swept the puck just barely over the goal line, despite the best efforts of Olen Zellweger in the Anaheim crease, a ruling confirmed by review after play had momentarily continued.

Hagel then had three chances to deliver the dagger on an early third-period power-play, including two clean breakaways, but each time the Anaheim netminder came through to keep his team within one.

And this time it would be the Ducks capitalizing on some goaltending heroics, forging the night's third tie on a deflection by Fabbri off Trouba's point shot. Trouba's assist was his third point as a Duck.

Robby Fabbri scores on a deflection from the slot

Gauthier almost ended it for Anaheim exactly halfway through overtime, flying down left wing and beating Vasilevskiy clean over the left shoulder for what could have been his second OT game-winner of the road trip, but the shot rang the crossbar and bounced out of play.

Guentzel scored the only goal of the shootout.

The Ducks conclude a six-game road trip Saturday at Florida.