EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored four goals for the first time in his career, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 53 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat Edmonton 7-4 on Thursday night to end the Oilers’ winning streak at eight.
“Without him that’s not even a game, so I think we give all the credit to Vasy tonight,” Stamkos said. “Certainly not a recipe we want to have to rely on every night, but in a game like that when we don’t have our best and we’re playing a really good team that’s on a winning streak, to have him back there was obviously huge.”
Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists to push his NHL-leading points total to 50. Tyler Motte and Anthony Cirelli also scored to help Tampa Bay improve to 14-12-5 with its fourth victory in six games. Like Stamkos, Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev pointed to the budy Vasilevskiy.
“It was another Hall of Fame performance by a Hall of Fame goalie,” Sergachev said. “I always tell him he’s a Hall of Famer and he’s only 28 years old and he’s playing unbelievable for us.”
Darnell Nurse, Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton. The Oilers fell to 13-13-1, falling a victory short of matching the longest winning streak in franchise history.
“We created a lot more chances,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. “We played a really good game. Eight times out of 10, nine out of 10, we probably win that game.”
Tampa Bay got off to a quick start with a power-play goal 1:07 into the opening period when Nick Paul won a battle in front of the net and sent it over to Stamkos, who fired a snapshot past Stuart Skinner. It was Stamkos’ 200th career power-play goal, making him the 20th player in NHL history to hit the benchmark.
The Lightning extended the lead seven minutes into the first when Motte picked up a loose puck in front and swatted home a backhand shot for his first goal of the season.
The Oilers got on the board with a short-handed goal 1:23 into the second period when Nugent-Hopkins sprung Nurse, who used his body as a shield before chipping it past Vasilevskiy.
Edmonton tied it on a power play 7:20 into the second when McDavid won a draw and golfed the loose puck into the net for his 11th, extending his points streak to 11 games.
The Oilers surged ahead with another power-play marker midway through the second, with Hyman ticking Evan Bouchard’s shot for his 17th.
Bouchard stretched his points streak to 13 games, the second-longest by a defenseman in franchise history behind only current assistant coach Paul Coffey.
The Lightning pulled back at 6:48 of the third , with Stamkos batting a rebound out of the air and bouncing it past Skinner.
Tampa Bay regained the lead with seven minutes to play when Kucherov battled hard to get a shot off and beat Skinner for his 20th of the season.
Skinner looked bad on another goal just 1:15 later as he waved a glove at Stamkos’ shot that went off the post and in for his 12th NHL hat trick.
Edmonton made it interesting with 2:22 left and Skinner pulled when Bouchard found Nugent-Hopkins at the side of the net for his seventh.
Tampa Bay put it away with a pair of empty-netters, first from Cirelli and then with Stamkos’ fourth goal of the game and 14th of the campaign.
UP NEXT
Lightning: At Calgary on Saturday night.
Oilers: Host Florida on Saturday night.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
