Brayden Point of Calgary, Alberta scored one of the biggest goals of his National Hockey League career on Thursday. In a 4-3 Tampa Bay Lightning win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, Point scored from Alex Killorn of Halifax, Nova Scotia and Brandon Hagel of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in an all-Canadian goal with one minute and 56 seconds left in the first overtime period.
The reason why this was considered one of the biggest goals in Point’s career because if the Lightning had not won on Thursday, they would have been eliminated from the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Now they have tied their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at three games apiece, and forced a seventh and deciding game in Toronto on Saturday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Point led the Lightning in scoring on Thursday. He had a muilti-point game with one goal and one assist. Point was also one of two Lightning players to score in game six. The other was Anthony Cirelli of Etobicoke, Ontario, who scored at 10:46 of the second period with a shorthanded marker which put Tampa Bay up 2-0.
Both of Point’s prior two Stanley Cup Playoff overtime winners came against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals in 2020. The first came in a 3-2 Lightning win on August 11, 2020 in quintuple overtime in game one of the series, and the second came in a 5-4 Lightning win on August 19, 2020 in game five of the series.
