As the Lightning continued to apply pressure in the Flyers zone, Nikita Kucherov sent a pass to the slot for Brayden Point, who quickly threw a shot on goal that was stopped by Samuel Ersson, but Stamkos was right there to jump on the rebound and hammer a slap shot into the back of the net for his 24th goal of the year.
Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, that would be the last goal for the Lightning Tuesday night with the Flyers adding two empty-net goals off the sticks of Noah Cates (15:22) and Cam York (17:41) to close out the 6-2 final.
With the loss, the Bolts fell to 32-34-5 on the season with a road record of 14-16-2. The team will return home and be back in action Thursday night with a divisional matchup against the Buffalo Sabres.
Bolts by the Numbers
Brandon Hagel picked up one assist and extended his career-long point streak to 14 games (9-12—21), tying Steven Stamkos (2022-23) for the second-longest point streak in Lightning franchise history. Hagel’s point streak is the longest active streak among all NHL skaters and tied for the fourth-longest among all players this season. Hagel has now picked up points in 17 of his last 18 games (10-15—25) and 20 of his last 22 contests (12-17—29).
Steven Stamkos scored his 24th goal of the season, the third most among all Lightning skaters, and is up to 51 points this campaign (24-27—51).
Nikita Kucherov recorded one assist to extend his point streak to four games (2-7—9). Up to 103 points on the season (38-65—103), Kucherov is still the only NHL skater to hit the 100-point mark. Kucherov has found the scoresheet in nine straight road games (7-11—18) and 14 of his last 15 contests overall (10-18—28).
Brayden Point recorded one assist and extended his point streak to a season-long seven games (5-4—9). Point has logged 15 points over his last 14 games (9-6—15) and is up to 63 points one the season (30-33—63).
Nick Paul scored his 17th goal of the season (17-15—32) and tied his career-highs for goals and points. Paul has scored a goal three of his last four contests (3-0—3).
Bolts Quotes
Steven Stamkos: “Coop always talks about getting more points than games played on a road trip, so we accomplished that. But at this time of the year, in a game 1-1 going into the third, it feels like we still let at least a point slip away tonight. They’re in a similar position as us. They’re battling for playoffs, so you’ve got to give them credit too. They were hungry for a win. They got it. We didn’t.”
Nick Paul: “You let one go in. You try to get the next and we let another go in. Two goals is a lot harder to come back from than one. If we let one, we’ve got to stop it there and get the next one. We’ve been playing good hockey and that could’ve been our period, but we’re going to put it behind us and come ready for the next game.”
Jon Cooper: “We came on the road and we played eight great periods of hockey and one we let get away from us. It's unfortunate. There were points to be had in this game.”
