Tampa Bay outshot the Islanders 9-5 in the opening period but trailed by a goal at the first intermission. The Isles cashed in on their lone power play in the period, with Ryan Pulock letting loose a blast from the left point that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy through a screen.
The Bolts took advantage of a big rebound allowed by Semyon Varlamov and tied the game four minutes into the second period. Blake Coleman fired the initial shot from the right wing and Varlamov kicked the rebound past his backtracking defenseman to Hedman who blasted his slap shot past the goaltender.
Six minutes later, a successful New York challenge wiped a Carter Verhaeghe goal off the board. Cedric Paquette won a puck battle in the corner and fed Verhaeghe for a shot from the left circle. The Isles were quick to challenge and replay revealed that Paquette had beat the puck over the blueline by a wide margin.
Neither team would score until Eberle's game-winner midway through the second overtime period. Tampa Bay won an offensive zone draw back to Kevin Shattenkirk but he whiffed on the shot allowing Anders Lee to start a 2-on-1 rush down ice. Lee managed to fit his cross-ice feed through Mikhail Sergachev to Eberle who one-timed it home.
Tampa Bay had chances to finish things in overtime. Anthony Beauvillier took a double minor penalty for high-sticking on Mikhail Sergachev in the final two minutes of regulation. New York killed off the first portion to force overtime and then managed to survive the Bolts' push at the start of the first extra frame.
Varlamov was the busier of the two goaltenders, finishing the night with 36 saves. Vasilevskiy stopped 22 shots on 24 shots.
For the Lightning, the loss snaps a five-game winning streak in overtime games in this postseason.
Game 6 is set for Thursday night at 8 p.m.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
NYI | 15:41 Ryan Pulock (2) - Nick Leddy, Mathew Barzal - PPG
2nd Period
TBL | 4:00 Victor Hedman (8) - Blake Coleman, Luke Schenn
3rd Period
No Scoring
1st Overtime
No Scoring
2nd Overtime
NYI | 12:30 Jordan Eberle (5) - Andres Lee
