EDMONTON — 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.
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.