Justin Williams opened the scoring for the Canes, pouncing on a rebound early in the second period. Andrei Vasilevskiy made a pad save on a shot from Dougie Hamilton but the rebound bounced right to Williams who fired the puck into the open net.
Tampa Bay thought it had tied the game a few minutes later on a Brayden Point goal. After having the initial shot on a breakaway stopped by Mrazek, Point batted the rebound out of the air and into the net to apparently tie the game. Carolina challenged, however, and the review revealed that Tyler Johnson was still partially on the ice entering the bench as Point crossed the blueline.
Carolina held onto the one goal lead until Palat equalized with less than 10 minutes to play in regulation. Steven Stamkos took a shot that deflected right to Palat and he was able to force the puck across the line to tie the game.
With Greg McKegg in the box for hooking late in the third period, Point settled into open space on the edge of the circle and one-timed a feed from Nikita Kucherov past Mrazek to give the Bolts the lead for good.
Point added an empty net tally with 25 seconds to play to ice the game for the Lightning.
