GAME RECAP: Lightning 6, Oilers 4

TAMPA, FL – The Edmonton Oilers saw their three-game win streak come to an end on Saturday with a 6-4 defeat to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena.

Centre James Hamblin scored his first NHL goal in the defeat, while Derek Ryan scored twice for his first goals of the season.

Steven Stamkos and Luke Glendening each scored in a 39-second span near the midway mark of the third period to ultimately lift the Lightning to two points after the Oilers retook the lead on Evan Bouchard's fourth goal of the season.

"I don't think we gave up a ton, but the stuff that we did give up was quality grade-A [chances]," Ryan said. "We can definitely clean that up. Definitely not a matter of scoring more goals. It's a matter of keeping it out of our net. It's a reoccurring theme."

Tampa Bay was led by Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev, who each had three points. The Oilers outshot the Lightning 43-24 and are now 0-4-1 this year when recording more than 40 shots.

Edmonton's power play didn't convert on any of their five opportunities with the man advantage, but the Bolts were able to cash in twice on four power-play chances.

"It felt like we played a pretty solid game for most of it. We let them have a few," Hamblin said. "I wish we could have done a little bit better job of shutting it down in the third period, but we have to have a short memory."

Edmonton's overall record drops to 5-10-1 heading into Monday's meeting with the Florida Panthers at FLA Live Arena.

FIRST PERIOD

It might've not been the finish Derek Ryan had envisioned, but they all look the same on the stat sheet.

The Oilers penalty kill was tasked with killing off an early Tampa Bay power play, but a turnover in the slot sent Derek Ryan and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins up the ice for a short-handed scoring chance.

Derek Ryan beamed up the middle of the neutral zone after offloading a pass to No. 93 before he got it back for a partial breakaway as Stamkos did his best to prevent anything from coming from it, but his efforts stick-checking the Oilers forward led to the puck sliding through the five-hole of Jonas Johansson without a shot, giving the Oilers the 1-0 lead on a stroke of luck at 16:31 of the first period.

There was nothing lucky about James Hamblin's first NHL goal that followed, but it was an unforgettable moment for the centre from Edmonton and his family.

Hamblin put in the initial work with a hard puck pursuit into the Tampa zone and stripping the puck from defenceman Calvin de Haan before the puck was worked to the top of the zone. Brett Kulak provided the shot on net that eventually rebounded to the 24-year-old, who sniped his first NHL goal glove side beyond Johansson before pointing to the sky and mouthing, 'That's for you, Mom.'

Hamblin's mother Gina passed away from cancer back in 2017. When speaking to Oilers TV at 2022 Oilers Development Camp, Hamblin said he was going on by being who she was as a person and a mother, so the significance of the moment for him and his family goes far beyond being just a first NHL goal.

"I think my initial thoughts are straight to my mom," he said. "I've had that celebration in the bank for a few years now. I think it was a weight off my shoulders to finally score the first one, and the first thoughts were just straight to her.

"It's super special. I know she's in my heart, she's on my back, and it's hard to not get emotional about it but I'm just really fortunate that went in."

The Bolts would get on the board in the last minute of the first period when luck found a way to equalize for the hosts.

Nikita Kucherov's attempted pass to Nicolas Paul on the power play struck the skate of Mattias Ekholm before bouncing past Stuart Skinner with 50.2 seconds on the clock. 

The Oilers outshot the Lightning 19-10 in the opening 20 minutes and were beaten once with the man advantage over three penalty kills, while picking up their second short-handed goal of the season.

SECOND PERIOD

Derek Ryan was officially on hatty watch.

Kucherov scored his second of the day on the second attempt during an odd-man rush that snuck five-hole under Skinner to tie the game 2-2 at 7:04 of the middle frame, but the tie would last less than three minutes.

Warren Foegele made a great zone entry and dangled around a Tampa defenceman before putting the puck into the crease, where Derek Ryan crashed and earned his second goal of the game for the Oilers by pushing the puck over the line with 4:05 remaining in the second period.

The 36-year-old certainly has a penchant for playing in the Sunshine State, with his only NHL career hat trick coming two seasons ago against the Florida Panthers. He scored four goals over that three-game road trip in February of 2022.

THIRD PERIOD

The Lightning struck twice in a 39-second span of the final frame to condemn the Oilers to defeat.

After Tanner Jeannot scored in the first four minutes of the third, it was Bouchard's wrist shot that returned the Oilers to a one-goal lead with just under 12 minutes remaining in regulation.

Tampa Bay worked a power-play set play to perfection when Stamkos ripped a one-timer into a wide-open net after Skinner was pulled out of position from a give-and-go between Kucherov and Brayden Point. Both forwards had multi-point games on Saturday night.

The Oilers would find themselves down 39 seconds later when Luke Glendening got behind the defence and one-touched a pass from Darren Raddysh under the right arm of Skinner, making it 5-4 with under 10 minutes to play.

"I didn't like how we handled having the lead," Knoblauch said. "Their forwards getting behind our defencemen, and our forwards not protecting the middle of the ice as well as we should have."

Mikhail Sergachev aired out a long empty-netter to secure the comeback win for the Bolts and the two points, ending Edmonton's three-game win streak.

"Definitely one that we should have had," Ryan said. "Going into the third period, we've got to be able to lock that down and win that game whether or not we had control. I think they definitely had some control in different moments of the game. Their power play is lethal and I think we probably put them on the power play too much, so they definitely got a lot of momentum off their power play."

PARTING WORDS

Coach Knoblauch on his team's play in the third period:

"I want us to play the same style, maybe be a little more conservative with the puck, especially in the offensive zone throwing pucks out to the slot and stuff like that," he added. "But overall, I still want the same pressure, same systems. We're not changing anything other than maybe being a little more conservative with the puck."

Hyman on allowing six goals and needing to tighten up defensively:

"I think as you go down the road, you don't see many playoff games six, seven to whatever the score is and you're winning, so I think scoring four goals should be enough for us. I think we've got to tighten up on the defensive side of things – just little plays – because I did think we carried a lot of the play today."