SUNRISE, Fla. – Olli Jokinen scored on a breakaway with 1:44 left in overtime, lifting the Florida Panthers to a 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Panthers overcame the Lightning’s big third-period rally and won for the sixth time in seven games.

Tampa Bay trailed 5-1 after two periods before scoring four times – two by Martin St. Louis scored twice and one each by Ryan Craig and Brad Richards – to force overtime.

Jozef Stumpel had two goals, and Ric Jackman, Steve Montador and Juraj Kolnik also scored for Florida, which has won four of five meetings this season with division rival Tampa Bay. Roberto Luongo had 29 saves for the Panthers.

John Grahame stopped 20 off 25 shots for the Lightning before being replaced by Gerald Coleman at the start of the third period.

Jokinen scored the decisive goal, his 33rd of the season, by firing a wrist shot between Coleman’s legs.

Florida began the game tied with Boston, six points behind Montreal for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

After Fedotenko’s 22nd goal tied the score 1-1 just 9 seconds into the second period, Florida scored four straight goals.

Stumpel, who has 15 points in his last eight games, backhanded a centering pass from Gary Roberts at 4:14. Montador took Jokinen’s drop pass in the left circle and fired the puck past Grahame’s high glove side to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead at 15:44.

Kolnik had a power-play goal at 18:24, and Stumpel capped the flurry 59 seconds later to make it 5-1.

Notes: Montador and Jackman scored their first goals with the Panthers. Montador was acquired from Calgary on Dec. 2 and Jackman was acquired from Pittsburgh on March 10. … The teams play three more times, all in the first nine days of April. … Florida’s Roberts returned after missing 16 games with an MCL sprain.

AP-ES-03-20-06 2206EST