Mike Carlson / AP
Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, center, skates off as Vegas Golden Knights celebrate the winning goal by Alec Martinez (23) in overtime Thursday, March 9, 2023, in Tampa, Fla.
Published Thursday, March 9, 2023 | 6:56 p.m.
Updated Thursday, March 9, 2023 | 8:38 p.m.
As Jack Eichel's wrist shot trickled by Andrei Vasilevskiy, Alec Martinez took off, lunging himself like a lawn dart to the open net.
He poked the loose puck home in overtime, a situation Martinez wouldn't normally find himself in, and the Golden Knights survived.
Martinez's game-winning goal 3:06 into overtime gave Vegas a thrilling 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday, putting the cap on a wild game that had a bit of everything.
And he nearly sacrificed everything to get that goal.
"I gave myself a bit of a Charlie Horse there," Martinez said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show."
The veteran defenseman isn't usually one to patrol the blue line during 3-on-3 overtime, but he didn't have a choice on this night. The Golden Knights and Lightning were each down five players for the final eight minutes because of a line brawl between the teams.
Vegas' fourth line of Teddy Blueger, Keegan Kolesar and Brett Howden, along with the third pairing of Zach Whitecloud and Nicolas Hague, were each assessed 10-minute misconducts and had to watch the remaining of regulation from the locker room.
The Golden Knights led 3-1 at the time of that brawl. The three-time Stanley Cup finalists and two-time champions pushed forward to tie it with less than 30 seconds remaining.
The Lightning's Nikita Kucherov scored on a one-timer with 2:07 remaining with the extra attacker, and Brayden Point scored his second goal of the game with 28 seconds left on a 6-on-4 — created by a high-sticking penalty from Chandler Stephenson — to tie it 3-3.
All of that would extend the drama and lead to Martinez eventually barreling into the net for his second goal of the season and to push the Golden Knights to 1-1-0 on this five-game east coast road trip.
"He's done a few of those with me back there over the years," goalie Jonathan Quick said.
Quick made 34 saves to earn his second win as a member of the Golden Knights (39-20-6), who bounced back from a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday for just their second loss in regulation since the All-Star break.
Quick made his second start as a member of the Golden Knights in place of the injured Adin Hill, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
Vegas recalled top prospect goalie Jiri Patera from Henderson in the morning. Patera, a sixth-round pick by Vegas in its inaugural entry draft in 2017, is the sixth different goalie to dress for the Golden Knights this season — a franchise record.
"With some of the injuries, it presented an opportunity for me to come here," said Quick, referencing to the stack of injuries in net along with Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit. "If they need me in the net, I'll be in the net working. If not, I'll try to help these guys as much as I can."
William Karlsson and Stephenson each scored to end double-digit scoring droughts, and Kolesar scored 27 seconds into the game for Vegas to sweep the season series against the Lightning.
But given that the scoring didn't come until the third period, all the praise should go to Quick.
The veteran goalie did all he could while Vegas struggled to generate offense with a franchise-low nine shots on goal through two periods. Tampa Bay held a 19-9 edge through 40 minutes and Quick shut the door outside of Point's first goal 4:28 into the game.
All the while, the Golden Knights killed four Tampa Bay penalties — including a high-sticking double-minor called on Shea Theodore late in the second period — behind Quick and strong work from the penalty-killing unit.
Vegas capitalized on the penalty kill when Karlsson ended a 15-game drought with a shorthanded goal 2:27 into the third to give Vegas a 2-1 lead.
On the power play, Stephenson ended a 12-game drought by deflecting a point shot from Theodore to make it 3-1 at 5:39.
Theodore extended his run post-All-Star break to 14 points (3 goals, 11 assists) in 14 games thanks to a power-play goal for the second straight game by the Golden Knights.
This was a contest that featured 146 penalty minutes between the teams, and it wasn't just from that line brawl. Defenseman Brayden McNabb got dinged for fighting with Tampa Bay forward Tanner Jeannot after Jeannot checked Eichel from behind. Scuffles were also aplenty throughout the night.
Coach Bruce Cassidy said the Golden Knights found their "emotional needle," which would come at a good time with a back-to-back brewing this weekend in Carolina and St. Louis.
"You're going to get hit, and you've got to hit back," he said.
Should that emotion translate, the Golden Knights might feel a little relieved going into Saturday — in another rematch against another Eastern Conference powerhouse they defeated recently — with their new goalie in net.
"It's a hockey game. It's that time of year where every point is huge and teams are fighting for it," Quick said. "That's a great team over there and we battled hard for those two points."
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
