Point Notches 40th Goal In Loss
Robert Thomas, Alexander Steen, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Brayden Schenn each scored to pace the St. Louis Blues to a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The victory improves the Blues to 40-27-8 on the season and they moved to within two games of the Nashville Predators in the Central Division with one game in hand. St. Louis becomes just the third team to sweep the Lightning this season joining the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild.
Thomas, Steen, and Tarasenko scored their goals in a span of 1:15 in the first period giving St. Louis the early 3-0 lead.
Tampa Bay made a furious comeback getting goals from Alex Killorn, Brayden Point, and Steven Stamkos rallying to pull to 4-3 in the third period. The Lightning appeared to have tied the game on a Stamkos goal with 5:43 remaining, but St. Louis challenged that the play as offside. After the video review, the goal was overturned as it was revealed that Brayden Point entered the zone ahead of the puck.
The loss drops Tampa Bay’s record to 58-14-4 (120-points) on the season and they see their seven game win streak snapped.
After the game, Lighting Coach Jon Cooper was asked if he takes pride in his team’s comeback effort against a tough opponent in their building. “Pride doesn’t get you two points. This is a big, strong, physical team that doesn’t give you a lot. We had close to 50 shots on goal, a plethora of scoring chances but they just didn’t go in for us tonight.” He said. “You can’t sit here and say we didn’t give ourselves a chance. And you’ve got to like that about our group especially down 3-0 and the crowd was into it. The boys circled the wagon and made one heck of an effort to come back, just fell short.”
Point Scores 40th Goal:
Brayden Point scored his 40th goal of the season becoming just the fifth player in the NHL to reach that milestone this season.
It marks the 10th 40-goal season in Lightning history and first since Nikita Kucherov scored 40 in the 2016-2017 season.
| Scor | Scor | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | G | Tm | Season | Age | GP | A | PTS |
| 1 | Steven Stamkos | 60 | TBL | 2011-12 | 21 | 82 | 37 | 97 |
| 2 | Vincent Lecavalier | 52 | TBL | 2006-07 | 26 | 82 | 56 | 108 |
| 3 | Steven Stamkos | 51 | TBL | 2009-10 | 19 | 82 | 44 | 95 |
| 4 | Steven Stamkos | 45 | TBL | 2010-11 | 20 | 82 | 46 | 91 |
| 5 | Martin St. Louis* | 43 | TBL | 2006-07 | 31 | 82 | 59 | 102 |
| 6 | Steven Stamkos | 43 | TBL | 2014-15 | 24 | 82 | 29 | 72 |
| 7 | Brian Bradley | 42 | TBL | 1992-93 | 28 | 80 | 44 | 86 |
| 8 | Nikita Kucherov | 40 | TBL | 2016-17 | 23 | 74 | 45 | 85 |
| 9 | Vincent Lecavalier | 40 | TBL | 2007-08 | 27 | 81 | 52 | 92 |
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
“I was there when Stammer scored 50 his second year. It’s special. Pointer’s just so much more than just a goal scorer and a play-maker.” Victor Hedman said. “He’s such a good player both ends of the ice and so valuable to our team. Obviously very happy for him, and he’s not going to stop here. He’s going to keep going, keep improving.”
