<p>TAMPA, Fla. — Victor Hedman scored 54 seconds into overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 victory against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.</p>
<p>The Lightning remained tied for first place in the Central Division with Carolina, though the Hurricanes have a game in hand. Florida is one point back.</p>
<p>Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves for his NHL-leading 26th victory of the season and added an assist. Alex Killorn had a goal and an assist. Ross Colton also scored for Tampa Bay.</p>
<p>Chris Driedger stopped 15 shots for the Panthers. Patric Hornqvist and Anthony Duclair scored for Florida, which has one win in the past four games.</p>
<p>Hedman got his eight goal of the season, sent in on a breakaway by Killorn. Hedman deked Driedger down and slipped the puck inside the post. </p>
<p>Hornqvist put the Panthers in front in the opening period, cutting toward the net on a pass from Alex Wenneberg and slipping a backhand past Vasilevskiy at 15:13.</p>
<p>After being outshot 13-4 in the first period, Tampa Bay pushed back in the second and cashed in on the first power-play opportunity of the game. With the Panthers making a change, Vasilevskiy came out of his crease and fed a pass up ice to Killorn for a 2-on-0 rush. Killorn tried to send a pass over to Anthony Cirelli, but the puck went into the net off the stick of Florida defenseman McKenzie Weeger at 13:28.</p>
<p>Florida regained the lead at 7:13 of the third after Lightning forward Yanni Gourde pinched while covering the right point. That sent Jonathan Huberdeau up ice on a 2-on-1, and he spun around to find Duclair for a one-timer.</p>
<p>Tampa Bay answered right back at 9:57 when Mikhail Sergachev found Colton down low on a cross-ice pass for a backdoor tap-in off the pads of Driedger.</p>
<p>STAMKOS TO INJURED RESERVE</p>
<p>Lightning captain Steven Stamkos missed his third consecutive game and was placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury. Stamkos, who underwent core muscle surgery twice last year, left a game in Columbus last Thursday following a non-contact play.</p>
<p>“I don’t anticipate him for the rest of the week,’’ coach Jon Cooper said. “We’ll get our guys here to work with him a little bit and go from there.’’</p>
<p>NEW FACES, NEW PLACES</p>
<p>Florida welcomed newly acquired defenseman Brandon Montour and forward Nikita Gusev to the lineup for the first time. Montour was acquired from Buffalo last Saturday for a third-round draft pick in 2021. Gusev signed as a free agent Sunday after his contract was terminated by New Jersey.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>The teams play again on Saturday.</p>
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