The Tampa Bay Lightning came from behind on multiple occasions and skated to a second-consecutive win Saturday night in a 6-4 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at AMALIE Arena.
The Bolts moved to 8-6-4 on the season with a home record of 5-2-2, as Jonas Johansson collected his seventh win of the campaign with 39 saves on 43 shots against.
Edmonton opened the scoring just 3:39 into the first period when Derek Ryan got a partial breakaway shorthanded and managed to sneak the puck through the five hole of Johansson for his first goal of the season.
The Bolts fell into a 2-0 hole just 4:52 later with James Hamblin jumping on a loose puck and firing a shot top shelf for his first goal of the year.
Goals in the last minute of a period can be huge and Nikita Kucherov got one to make it a one-goal game just before the end of the opening frame. With the Lightning on the power play, Kucherov took a pass from Steven Stamkos at the right circle and quickly flung the puck towards the slot, where Nick Paul was crashing the net. But before the puck could get to Paul, it ricocheted off the skate of Mattias Ekholm and past Stuart Skinner with 50.6 seconds remaining in the period.
Kucherov was right back at it in the second period and got the game tied up at the 12:56 mark with his 13th goal of the season. After Mikhail Sergachev made a diving effort to poke the puck away from Evan Bouchard, Kucherov gained possession near the Tampa Bay blue line and skated downhill on a 2-on-1 with Brayden Point.
Looking to find Point, Kucherov attempted a pass that was blocked by Ekholm, but he quickly jumped on the puck and fired it through the five hole of Skinner for his second goal of the contest, evening the score with 7:05 remaining in the middle frame.
The Oilers got a quick response when Ryan answered with his second goal of the game, jumping on a loose puck in front and giving Edmonton a 3-2 lead with 4:05 to go in the second.
The Bolts entered Thursday’s contest with a record of 0-5-2 in games that they trailed after two periods. But on this night, Tampa Bay would walk away with a win in regulation.
Tanner Jeannot got the game tied at three just 3:54 into the third period when Sergachev made a nice pass up the ice to Mikey Eyssimont, who sent the puck across the neutral zone for Jeannot to hammer a one-timer past Skinner for his third goal of the season.
As it looked like the Lightning were gaining control of the game, Bouchard gave the Oilers a 4-3 lead 4:10 after the Jeannot goal, stepping into the offensive zone and firing a shot from the top of the right circle that beat Johansson for his fourth goal of the year.
But, once again, the Bolts had a response as Stamkos found the back of the net with his sixth goal of the season just 1:24 after Bouchard’s go-ahead goal. In one of the prettiest power-play goals of the year, Kucherov and Point exchanged multiple passes before Kucherov wired a pass across the zone to Stamkos, who rifled a one-timer past Skinner for the 197th power-play goal of his career, tying him with Jarome Iginla for 21st all-time in NHL history.
Before Edmonton had time to blink, Luke Glendening gave Tampa Bay their first lead of the game just 39 seconds after the Stamkos goal, redirecting a pass from Cole Koepke past Skinner for his second tally of the campaign. The assist was the first of Koepke’s NHL career in his first game with the Bolts this season.
The Lightning got a big penalty kill against an elite Oilers power play with 5:07 remaining in the game, completing a 5-for-5 performance by the PK on the game. Sergachev put the game on ice at the 19:05 mark of the third when he sent a shot from behind his own goal line all the way into the empty net to make it 6-4 with his second goal in as many games.
Anthony Cirelli missed the game with an injury, but practiced Sunday morning and was labeled as day-to-day by head coach Jon Cooper before Saturday’s game.
Bolts by the Numbers
- Mikhail Sergachev (1-2—3) recorded his sixth career three-point game and surpassed Pavel Kubina (5x) for sole possession of the third most among Lightning defensemen behind Victor Hedman (38x) and Dan Boyle (8x).
- The Lightning scored four times in the final frame en route to a 6-4 victory. The only times they have scored more goals in a third period were on December 19, 1995 (6 vs. WIN), March 30, 2018 (5 at NYR) and April 29, 2022 (5 at NYI).
- The Lightning scored three tying goals today. They’ve tallied more in a single contest only three other times (4 on Nov. 18, 2010, Dec. 13, 2007 & March 9, 2006).
- Mikhail Sergachev has recorded a multi-point effort in back-to-back games.
- Nikita Kucherov recorded his 71stcareer three-point game, the third-most in Lightning history behind Marty St. Louis (73) and Steven Stamkos (97).
- Cole Koepke recorded his first NHL assist and his second NHL point in his first game with the Lightning this season after being recalled from AHL Syracuse.
- Darren Raddysh recorded two assists for his first multi-point game of the season.
Bolts Quotes
- Jon Cooper: “I think maybe earlier in the year, we might find a way to only get that to overtime or actually lose the game. I just liked the way the guys dug in.”
- Tanner Jeannot: “We’ve had a couple of games that we had the lead going into the third, and this one, we were going into the third down, so we knew we just wanted to work hard and play our game. We knew we have a lot of goals in this room and we just played the right way.”
- Jon Cooper: “The season's still fairly new, but we've not been a great third period team this year. So, for us to come out and be behind and pull it out and push the way we did, it's great for our morale.”
Krenner’s Three Stars
- Nikita Kucherov
- Mikhail Sergachev
- Luke Glendening
Lightning Look Ahead
Monday, November 20 vs. Boston Bruins, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
Wednesday, November 22 vs. Winnipeg Jets, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
Friday, November 24 at Carolina Hurricanes, 8 p.m. ET, PNC Arena
