UNDATED (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning needed almost all of regulation to win on Thursday.
Ross Colton scored with just 3.8 seconds left in regulation, giving the Lightning a 2-1 victory and a two-games-to-none lead in their second-round series with the Panthers. Tampa Bay had just killed off a penalty to Steven Stamkos when Colton scored right in front of Sergei Bobrovsky. The penalty kill also left Florida 0-for-25 on the power play this postseason.
The Bolts scored on their first power play chance as Corey Perry deflected a shot past Bobrovsky 12:06 into the game. It remained 1-0 until Eetu Luostarinen beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with 1:53 remaining in the second period.
Game 3 is Saturday in Tampa.
The Blues have also knotted their second-round series at a game apiece as David Perron scored twice, including the game-winner in a 4-1 victory at Colorado.
Perron’s power-play goal put St. Louis ahead, 2-0 with 34 seconds remaining in the second period. He also delivered the insurance goal midway through the third period after Gabriel Landeskog netted a power-play goal to draw the Avalanche within 2-1.
Jordan Kyrou also scored on Darcy Kuemper, Brandon Saad added an empty-netter and Pavel Buchnevich had two assists for St. Louis. Kuemper turned back 28 shots.
Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for the Blues, who host Game 3 on Saturday.
