It was quality over quantity for the Stars in the first period as they scored goals on two of their three shots. John Klingberg scored off the rebound of his own blocked shot to get Dallas on the board first. Klingberg had his initial shot blocked by Jan Rutta but gathered the rebound and fired a shot home before Andrei Vasilevskiy could reset. With just over a minute to play in the period, Dallas doubled their lead with Jamie Benn feeding Joe Pavelski on a 2-on-1 rush for a goal.
59 seconds after going down two, Brayden Point scored on a breakaway to get Tampa Bay back within one. Point made a great play to settle Ondrej Palat's pass from the neutral zone and beat Anton Khudobin with a move to his backhand.
Two minutes into the second period, Point got his second of the night to tie the game. Alex Killorn's centering feed got popped up into the air and Point swatted the puck past Khudobin to make it 2-2.
Dallas jumped back in front at the 8:26 mark with Corey Perry cleaning up a loose puck in the crease. Tyler Seguin had a breakaway chance broken up but Vasilevskiy got pulled out of position and Perry jumped up on the play to force the puck over the line and give the Stars the lead.
Another late goal by the Bolts tied the game at three prior to intermission. On a power play, Nikita Kucherov fired a shot from the right circle that Esa Lindell blocked right to Yanni Gourde who scored into a basically empty net.
Tampa Bay went in front for the first time of the game early in the third period. Alex Killorn won the puck behind the net, wheeled at the right circle and fired a shot to the far post that Khudobin couldn't stop.
The lead wouldn't last, however, as Pavelski's second goal tied the game at four midway through the period. Pavelski's tight angle shot deflected off Kevin Shattenkirk in the crease and over the line.
Shattenkirk would get redemption in overtime, however. With Tampa Bay on a power play, Shattenkirk walked to the right faceoff dot and fired a shot through Pat Maroon's screen that beat Khudobin to give Tampa Bay the win.
After facing only three shots in the first period, Vasilevskiy's workload picked up as the night wore on. He finished Game 4 with 26 saves, but 25 of those came in the final two periods and overtime.
Key to the win was Tampa Bay's special teams dominance. The Bolts' power play went 3-for-4 and the penalty kill was successful in all three shorthanded situations.
The Lightning can wrap up the series tomorrow night with a win in Game 5.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
DAL | 7:17 John Klingberg (4) - Esa Lindell
DAL | 18:28 Joe Pavelski (11) - Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov
TBL | 19:27 Brayden Point (12) - Ondrej Palat, Kevin Shattenkirk
2nd Period
TBL | 2:08 Brayden Point (13) - Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov - PPG
DAL | 8:26 Corey Perry (3) - Tyler Seguin, Mattias Janmark
TBL | 18:54 Yanni Gourde (7) - Nikita Kucherov, Mikhail Sergachev - PPG
3rd Period
TBL | 6:41 Alex Killorn (5) - Mikhail Sergachev, Anthony Cirelli
DAL | 11:35 Joe Pavelski (12) - Tyler Seguin, Miro Heiskanen
Overtime
TBL | 6:34 Kevin Shattenkirk (3) - Victor Hedman, Pat Maroon - PPG
