Stamkos scores 4 goals, Lightning end Oilers’ win streak at 8

EDMONTON -- Steven Stamkos scored four goals for the first time, and the Tampa Bay Lightning ended the Edmonton Oilers’ eight-game winning streak with a 7-4 victory at Rogers Place on Thursday.

After Tampa Bay was unable to protect an early two-goal lead, Stamkos’ second goal tied it 3-3 at 6:48 of the third period. The 33-year-old forward completed the hat trick at 14:02 to make it 5-3, then scored again with seven seconds left for the 7-4 final.

It was Stamkos’ 1,031st NHL game.

“He looks at me after the fourth one and says, ‘First time ever,’ Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “I was like, ‘You’ve got 500 (529) 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.

“But yeah, you need your big guys to come out when the game’s on the line, and ‘Vasy’ (Andrei Vasilevskiy) and ‘Stammer’ did that tonight.”

Vasilevskiy made 53 saves, and Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (14-12-5), who have won two of their past three games.

“Without him, that’s not even a game, so I think we give all the credit to ‘Vasy’ tonight,” said Stamkos, the Tampa Bay captain. “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.

“He’s done it his whole life in the biggest moments too. You’re almost not surprised, [but] you should be because to play the way he did against the talent that’s on the other side tonight was, I think, even more impressive. He gave us a chance and we were opportunistic and buried our chances. We got a win. It wasn’t pretty, [but] we’ll certainly take it.”

Connor McDavid extended his point streak to 11 games with a goal and an assist, and Evan Bouchard extended his to 13 with two assists for the Oilers (13-13-1). Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and two assists, and Stuart Skinner made 17 saves.

“The guys played a heck of a game,” Skinner said. “I don't think anybody in this room should be upset except for me, to be honest.

“I ended up losing us the game. That’s something that I’ll take that on, and I’ll be better for it.”

Stamkos gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead on a power play at 1:07 of the first period, one-timing Nicholas Paul’s feed in the left face-off circle.

Tyler Motte made it 2-0 at 7:15 when he backhanded a rebound in front for his first goal in 21 games this season.

Darnell Nurse cut it to 2-1 with a short-handed goal at 1:23 of the second period when he took a pass from Nugent-Hopkins and scored with a wrist shot.

McDavid tied it 2-2 on a power play at 7:20, scoring right after a face-off in the right circle to extend his point streak (27 points; seven goals, 20 assists).

Zach Hyman gave Edmonton a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal at 10:02 on a redirection of Bouchard’s slap shot from the right point.

Bouchard has 20 points (five goals, 15 assists) during his point streak.

The Oilers outshot the Lightning 23-7 in the second before giving up five goals in the third.

“I thought for the most part that we played a solid game, but we obviously gave up a couple too many goals,” Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl said. “I thought we were the better team and probably deserved to win, but it is obviously not the way that the League works.”

Stamkos tied it at 6:48 of the third, batting Haydn Fleury’s rebound out of mid-air to make it 3-3.

Kucherov put Tampa Bay back in front 4-3 at 12:47, sliding it under Skinner’s pad, and Stamkos beat Skinner glove side at 14:02 to make it 5-3.

“He shot it from the blue line today and scored because their goalie got screened a little bit. Anywhere he shoots it from, he’s got a chance,” Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev said of Stamkos, who had seven shots on goal. “I always think that he needs to shoot more and more.

“He’s got to shoot 10 times in a game and he’s going to score two. He’s got a very accurate shot, and he’s been in the League for 15 years being a leader on this team and he’s just a threat out there.”

Nugent-Hopkins redirected a point shot from Bouchard to cut it to 5-4 at 17:38, but Anthony Cirelli scored an empty-net goal at 18:27 to make it 6-4 before Stamkos scored again at 19:53.

“There’s always going to be games where you play well enough where you should have won, and there’s going to be games where you win that you don’t,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “And tonight is going to be one of those where it just didn’t work out. I liked our guys’ effort and [if] we do that again, play like that, more often than not we’ll win.”

NOTES: It was the second time Stamkos scored three goals in a period (second period against the Chicago Blackhawks on Nov. 4, 2011). He also became the 20th player in NHL history to score 200 power-play goals. … Kucherov has 50 points (20 goals, 30 assists) in 30 games this season. … It was the second time this season the Lightning scored five goals in the third period (Nov. 24 at the Carolina Hurricanes). … McDavid and Draisaitl each had seven shots on goal.