Brayden Point scored the lone goal in a shootout, leading the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.
Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy was credited with 27 saves, including a penalty-shot stop on Mitch Marner with 6:02 left in the third period. He stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout, helping the Lightning earn a fourth consecutive win.
Vasilevskiy improved to 37-12-2 as Tampa Bay increased its Atlantic Division lead to five points over the second-place Maple Leafs.
It was the second straight game in which Point, who fired a shot over the right shoulder of Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen, scored the game-winner in a shootout.
Tyler Johnson, Adam Erne and Chris Kunitz scored in regulation for Tampa Bay, which lost NHL leading scorer Nikita Kucherov (82 points) in the first period due to an upper-body injury.
It was the eighth shootout goal in 13 career attempts for Point, who is also 3-of-5 this season.
Andersen finished with 39 saves for Toronto. Marner had a goal and an assist while Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk also scored for the Maple Leafs. Morgan Rielly added two assists.
Kunitz gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead just 1:41 into the game when he deflected Andrej Sustr’s wrist shot from the top of the slot through Andersen’s pads for his third goal in the past five games and 11th of the season.
Toronto answered with a pair of goal just 63 seconds apart. The first was by van Riemsdyk, his 26th goal of the season, on the rebound of a shot by Ron Hainsey. Marner followed with his 17th when Jake Gardiner’s crossing pass hit his right skate and was redirected through Vasilevskiy’s pads.
Tampa Bay rebounded to take a 3-2 lead in the second period with back-to-back goals by Johnson and Erne. Johnson rebounded his own shot and quickly went behind the net and wrapped the puck inside the post on Andersen’s stick side for his 18th goal of the season.
Erne picked up his second goal of the season when he intercepted a clearing pass by defenseman Roman Polak and then whirled around between the circles and wristed a shot past Andersen’s stick side.
Bozak then tied it 3-3 with a power-play goal at 5:27 of the third period, one-timing a crossing pass from Marner off Vasilevskiy’s right arm.
Marner was hooked on a breakaway by Victor Hedman and rewarded a penalty shot with 6:02 left. However, Vasilevskiy stopped the shot, deflecting the puck wide with the toe of his left skate.

Letestu returns to push Blue Jackets past Capitals
Mark Letestu scored in his return to the Columbus Blue Jackets and helped pave the way for a key 5-1 victory over the visiting Washington Capitals at Nationwide Arena on Monday night.
Letestu, who previously played for Columbus from 2011 to 2015, was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday to provide depth at centre.
The Blue Jackets also picked up forward Thomas Vanek from Vancouver and defenseman Ian Cole from Ottawa just hours prior to the trade deadline. Vanek was a scratch but Cole was in the lineup against Washington.
Alex Ovechkin, who appeared in his franchise-record 984th game, had a first-period goal, his NHL-leading 39th on the season. He is now just three goals away from reaching 600 for his career. He could join Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull to reach that milestone before his 1,000th career regular-season game.
The Blue Jackets set the early tone and led 4-1 in the opening period on goals by Artemi Panarin, Sonny Milano, Letestu and Seth Jones. Columbus entered the game ranked 30th on the power play, but both Panarin and Jones scored on man-advantage opportunities.
The teams got into a scuffle at the first-period horn, and Ovechkin was shaken up when he was hit in the face by Matt Calvert, leaving blood on the ice. Following a discussion by the officials, Calvert was called for a match penalty for the infraction.
Ovechkin and Columbus coach John Tortorella exchanged words just before the intermission. After the first period, Philipp Grubauer replaced Braden Holtby in goal for the Capitals and Ovechkin was back on the ice in a scoreless second period. Holtby saved 12 of the 16 shots he faced. Grubauer didn’t allow a goal on 18 shots.
The Blue Jackets sealed the win with a short-handed, empty-net goal by cam Atkinson with 2:42 left in the game.
Despite the victory, Columbus has won just five of 13 games over the past month. The Blue Jackets hope the recent acquisitions will be a boost to their playoff run.