Lightning find yet another way to win in overtime victory over Stars

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Oct 30, 2025

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning had every reason to believe it wasn’t their night midway through their game against the Dallas Stars Thursday at Benchmark International Arena.

But this is a team that’s suddenly finding ways to win, and its 2-1 overtime victory over Dallas was just another example.

Anthony Cirelli’s goal with 2:24 left in overtime gave the Lightning their fourth straight win after losing six of their first seven games.

Tampa Bay had 14 scoring chances in the first period, including eight high-danger opportunities. It held Dallas to just one shot on goal through the first 15 minutes of the second period but had nothing to show for it.

And even when the Lightning finally received a fortunate bounce, it took a second look for it to become real.

Brandon Hagel opened the scoring when his shot went off Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen’s stick and just over the goal line before Heiskanen was able to retrieve it. Though the horn sounded briefly, it was called no goal on the ice. But after the Lightning challenged the call, aerial cameras showed that the puck had completely crossed the line.

The Lightning had just one goal in their previous 20 power-play opportunities, and for Hagel it was his first man-advantage goal since March 9, 2024. None of his career-high 35 goals last season were on the power play.

Nikita Kucherov’s wrister 80 seconds into the second period hit off the crossbar and then off the left post. Dallas tied the game 43 seconds later when Adam Erne redirected Alex Petrovic’s puck on net past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The Lightning penalty kill then had to kill off a penalty that included a 5-on-3 advantage for the Stars for 61 seconds. After getting back to full strength, Tampa Bay received its own power play when Wyatt Johnson tripped Hagel.

Kucherov celebrated for 1,000 points

The team held a pregame ceremony to celebrate Kucherov reaching the 1,000-point mark, which he did Saturday against the Ducks.

Kucherov — who was joined on the ice by his wife, Anastasiya, son Max and daughter Alisa — received a standing ovation from the crowd and was presented with a number of gifts.

First was a custom piece of art of Kucherov celebrating a goal made of 12,000 dice created by Florida artist Barbara Helman. Vasilevskiy presented him with a commemorative crystal on behalf of the NHL, captain Victor Hedman gave him a custom-engraved watch, and co-owner Doug Ostrover presented him with a commemorative goal stick.

The video board then played congratulatory messages from Russian greats Alexander Ovechkin, Sergei Federov, former Lightning GM Steve Yzerman (who drafted Kucherov), his former linemates on the Triplets line (Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat), as well as former teammates and good friends Vladislav Nemestnikov, Mikhail Sergachev and Steven Stamkos.

Kucherov became the 17th-fastest player in league history to reach 1,000 points and the fastest Russian-born player, accomplishing the milestone in 809 games.