The Backcheck: An eventful win in Edmonton

After getting outshot 23-7 in the second period and going into the final frame down by one, the Tampa Bay Lightning outscored the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in the final 20 minutes and skated to a 7-4 victory Thursday night at Rogers Place.

Steven Stamkos led the way for the Bolts, recording his 12th career hat trick and first career four-goal game, while Andrei Vasilevskiy put in a fabulous performance between the pipes, finishing the night with 53 saves, the second-most he’s ever recorded in a regular season game.

As has been the case on several occasions this season, Tampa Bay got on the board early when Stamkos scored his 200th career power-play goal just 1:07 into the contest.

After Nikita Kucherov sent a pass to the slot, Nick Paul was able to push it over to the left circle for Stamkos, who wired a shot past Stuart Skinner for his 11th goal of the season to give the Lightning an ideal start on the road.

Only 6:10 later, Tyler Motte gave the Bolts a 2-0 lead when he scored his first goal in a Lightning sweater at the 7:17 mark of the first.

Following a keep at the Edmonton blue line by Mikey Eyssimont, Motte sent a pass to the right point for Darren Raddysh before crashing the net, jumping on a rebound in front and beating Skinner with a top shelf, backhand shot.

Tampa Bay finished the first period with a 15-7 shot advantage, but the struggles in the second period continued with the Oilers winning the special teams battle in the middle frame and outscoring the Bolts 3-0 over that 20-minute span. Darnell Nurse made it 2-1 with a shorthanded goal at the 1:23 mark of the first before Connor McDavid (7:20) and Zach Hyman (10:02) both scored power-play goals to make it a 3-2 game going into the third period.

The Lightning surrendered 23 shots against in the middle frame, a single-season high for shots allowed in one period.  

But despite the lopsided second period, the Bolts entered the third needing only one goal to get the game tied up. Instead, they went on to outscore the Oilers 5-1 in the final 20 minutes to secure a massive two points on the road.

Leading the way, Stamkos got the game tied 3-3 at the 6:48 mark of the third with a beautiful goal, batting a rebound out of midair with his feet below the goal line and beating Skinner to the short side for his second goal of the night.

Almost exactly six minutes later, another star stepped up for Tampa Bay, with Nikita Kucherov collecting the puck in the neutral zone and skating into the Edmonton zone one-on-one with Cody Ceci.

Putting the puck into the skates of Ceci, Kucherov continued to push forward and got back to the puck right near the top of the crease before beating Skinner five hole for his 20th goal of the season.  

Less than two minutes later, the captain completed his hat trick to put the Lightning up 5-3 with 5:58 remaining in regulation. Taking a pass across the neutral zone from Conor Sheary, Stamkos skated into the Edmonton zone, slammed on the breaks and whipped a quick shot off the right post and into the back of the net for his 13th goal of the year and 12th career hat trick.

Edmonton didn’t quit despite the multi-goal deficit and made it 5-4 with 2:22 remaining when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins redirected a shot from Evan Bouchard past Vasilevksiy.

But 49 seconds later, Anthony Cirelli iced the game with his eighth goal of the campaign, an empty-net tally, to make it 6-4 with 1:33 remaining.

Putting the cherry on top, Stamkos added an empty-net goal with 6.1 seconds remaining to complete his first career four-goal game. Additionally, Kucherov recorded the primary assist for his 30th helper of the season, making him the first NHL player to hit the 50-point mark.

The Lightning’s stars stepped up in a big game without Victor Hedman in the lineup and Tampa Bay moved to 14-12-5 on the season with a road record of 6-9-2. They will conclude their five-game road trip Saturday night with a game against the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Bolts by the Numbers

- Steven Stamkos became the 20th player in NHL history to score 200 power-play goals and just the seventh player to do so with a single franchise.

- Stamkos recorded his 12th career hat trick, the most in Lightning franchise history. He’s the sixth active player with 12 or more career hat tricks.

- Stamkos scored the first four-goal game of his career, joining Chris Kontos and Martin St. Louis as the only players in Lightning franchise history to do so.

- Andrei Vasilevskiy made the second-most saves of his career with 53 and improved to 5-4- 0 on the season.

- Nikita Kucherov scored a goal and added two assists to become the first NHL skater to reach 50 points this season.

- Kucherov became the fourth active player to record 50 points in 30 or fewer games.

- Kucherov reached the 20-goal mark in 30 games or fewer for the second time in his career. Steven Stamkos is the only other player in Lightning franchise history to do so multiple times.

- Conor Sheary collected two assists in his first game since November 7.

- Calvin de Haan skated in his 600th career NHL game.

Bolts Quotes

- Steven Stamkos on Andrei Vasilevskiy: “Without him, that's not even a game, so I think we give all the credit to Vasy tonight.”

- Jon Cooper on Steven Stamkos: “He looks at me after fourth one and says, 'First time ever.' I was like, 'You've got 500 of them. That was the first time you've had four in a game?' And he said yeah, so we had a good little chuckle on the bench.”

- Steven Stamkos on the four-goal game: “The last probably week or two, I've had some really quality chances that haven't gone in the net. It's probably been bunching up for a moment like this and that's what happens. They come in spurts usually. You just try not to get too down and continue to shoot the puck and obviously they went in tonight, which was really nice to see.”

- Jon Cooper on his message during the second intermission: “I just talked to the guys and said, 'Regardless of how we got here, it's a one-goal game.' The whole conversation was, 'Let's just get one and push it to overtime.' And instead, they went out and got five.”

- Mikhail Sergachev on Andrei Vasilevskiy: “It was another Hall of Fame performance by a Hall of Fame goalie. I always tell him he’s a Hall of Famer.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Andrei Vasilevskiy

2. Steven Stamkos

3. Nikita Kucherov

Lightning Look Ahead

- Saturday, December 16 at Calgary Flames, 10 p.m. ET, Scotiabank Saddledome

- Tuesday, December 19 vs. St. Louis Blues, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena

- Thursday, December 21 vs. Vegas Golden Knights, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena