Gourde, Lightning defeat Hurricanes in OT

TAMPA --Yanni Gourde scored at 2:50 of overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Amalie Arena on Monday.

Gourde's initial shot from the slot was saved by Petr Mrazek, but he got his own rebound in the crease and stuffed the puck into the net.
"There was a lot of room, but Alex [Killorn] won his 1-on-1 in the corner, he battled for the puck and won it again," Gourde said. "I just tried to get a shot off as quick as I could, and I was fortunate enough to get a rebound. I just followed the puck and went to the net. That's where I usually score my goals. I tried to keep it simple."
Killorn had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (30-13-2), who have won four of their past six games and are one point behind the Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for first place in the eight-team Discover Central Division. The top four teams will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves for his NHL-leading 27th victory.
"The whole game it seemed like there was some kind of pent-up energy," Killorn said. "I'm really happy with the entire game. With the amount of games that there are remaining … you want to play a certain way."

Andrei Svechnikov and Brady Skjei scored for the Hurricanes (29-10-5), who have lost three of their past five games (2-1-2). Mrazek made 33 saves.
The teams will play each other for the final time this season here Tuesday.
"I don't think we had emotion at all," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "They might've treated it like a playoff game, but I don't think we did. It's all about little plays that we didn't do today. We need to up the ante a little bit ...
"It wasn't good enough. We got lucky to get a point out of that. Our goalie bailed us out. We had spurts where we were playing right, but it wasn't good enough."
Killorn gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 14:42 of the first period, deking Mrazek on a breakaway before scoring with a backhand just below the crossbar.
Brayden Point extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 2:08 of the second period when he deflected a shot from Ondrej Palat. The goal was Point's 300th point in the NHL.
"There were two good teams out there," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We had a game plan in place and they executed it. The guys did a good job."

Svechnikov cut it to 2-1 at 10:03 with a shot from the right face-off circle on the power play. It was his third straight game with a goal after scoring one in his previous 11.
"I think he's played fine all year," Brind'Amour said. "I know everyone judges, and he does too, I'm sure, on goals, but he's always making plays out there. He had a great game tonight, really. He's been doing this all year.
"I hope for his sake he just relaxes and plays a little bit and doesn't get asked all the questions about getting goals. Because you can't really control all that. Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don't. It's the overall play we're looking for."
Skjei tied it 2-2 at 1:08 of the third period when he scored through a screen by Sebastian Aho.
"I think we can learn from this," Skjei said. "I don't think we played the full 60, and it showed. We had good spurts of play, but overall, it wasn't our best. Petr played a heck of a game. We've got to come back tomorrow, so we'll learn a few things on video and get right back at it."