Cirelli scores in OT, Lightning defeat Stars for 4th straight victory

TAMPA -- Anthony Cirelli scored at 2:36 of overtime to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars at Benchmark International Arena on Thursday.

Cirelli took control of the loose puck off of a turnover by Mikko Rantanen to start a breakaway and beat Stars goalie Jake Oettinger with the backhand.

"We're just kind of rolling there, just trying to play the right way and stick to our process," Cirelli said. "Both goalies made some really big saves. I just tried to get that breakaway and make a quick move. Luckily it went in."

Brandon Hagel scored for the third straight game for Lightning (5-4-2), who have won four in a row. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves.

"We put a little pressure on them, I was able to lift his stick a little bit and ‘Tony’ did a good job of supporting," Hagel said. "And he was able to finish. That's his signature move. I think he did that a lot a couple of years ago. I don't know why he hasn't done it for a while, but when I saw him go back to it, I knew he was going to put it in."

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said the Lightning's recent success has come from eliminating the risk elements from their game.

"You look at some of the games we won early in the season, it was only one, but it was just too much risk and we were feeding other teams’ rushes and feeding them chances," Cooper said. "As you can see, we've changed the way we've played and changed our mentality and the losses have turned into wins."

Adam Erne scored for Dallas (6-3-2), which has a five-game point streak (3-0-2). Oettinger made 30 saves.

"We had our chances, you know, a 5-on-3 to get something out of it but we didn't," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We've talked at length about just trying to muck out points and grind out points and put ourselves in position to get two. We would've loved to get two tonight. It was tight that way, but we wanted two."

Hagel gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 15:02 of the second period when he slid the puck over the goal line off a follow-up of a shot from Gage Goncalves. The goal was initially waved off, but video review initiated by the NHL Situation Room showed the puck crossed the goal line.

"We're just playing fast right now," Hagel said. "The D are doing an incredible job of getting the puck up the ice and letting the forwards keep their speed. Our D has been doing an incredible job. These 2-1 games you learn a lot about yourself and it's a good time to learn about yourself, especially early in the season."

Erne tied the game 1-1 at 2:03 of the third period when he redirected a shot from Alexander Petrovic from the net front position. It was the first goal since Dec. 21, 2023 with the Edmonton Oilers for the 30-year-old forward, who did not play in the NHL last season.

"Every point is just as important as it is at the end of the year and the more we can squeak out now the better, hopefully we'll get two in Florida," Erne said. "We don't have an overwhelming amount of goals or offense this season, but that's going to come. Good teams can win in a lot of different ways and we've shown we can win by playing good defensively."

Stars forward Tyler Seguin played in his 1,000th NHL game. He was 6-of-12 on face-offs in 21:48.

"You don't think about it growing up and I don't know if I ever thought about it until bad things were happening, until injuries were happening and then obviously, I've had it circled trying to get to that game," Seguin said. "I'm proud of it. I'm proud of the journey it's been to get here and it was nice to share the day with everybody."

NOTES: Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov was honored for scoring his 1,000th NHL point on Saturday with a pregame ceremony where he received a gold stick and a custom watch. ... Seguin is the 410th player in NHL history to skate in 1,000 career games, and the second to reach the milestone this season (Adam Henrique, Oilers).