A night with a trio of milestones led by Stamkos’ four-goal game helped Lightning stun the Oilers ending their eight-game winning streak. The entire night saw the Lightning mishandle the puck causing numerous turnovers and leading to an abysmal second period. Despite all of this Andrei Vasilevskiy continued to dazzle in net to keep the game from being out of reach. Whatever was said in the locker room before the start of the third helped as the offense came alive to steal a win away from the Edmonton Oilers ending their impressive eight-game winning streak.
A pair of millstones to start the game up
Opening face-off was won by Connor McDavid and away the final meeting between the two teams went. Tonight, Calvin deHann reached a milestone as it was his 600th career game. Right away the Lightning went on the power play after Leon Draisaitl is booked for tripping. Shortly after, Tampa would open up the scoring on said power play. Stamkos scored what was his 200th career power play goal to give the Lightning an early 1-0 lead. The goal would also be his 399th career power play point. Later on, Edmonton went on the attack hoping to answer the goal by Stamkos. Lightning began to have troubles clearing the puck, but the Oilers were held without a goal.
Stammer PPGs just never get old pic.twitter.com/bQEVSNZom7
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) December 15, 2023
Motte scores his first as a Bolt
Instead, Lightning strike again to extend the lead with a goal from Tyler Motte. The goal was reviewed to make sure it went past Stuart Skinner and not off the crossbar. Yet another milestone to write down as the goal was Motte’s first with the Lightning. Score was then 2-0 Tampa with 11:36 to go in the period. Despite the lead Tampa continued to struggle with clearing the puck out of their zone. However, Lightning continued to do a great job back checking with all the time that was spent in their own zone. Andrei Vasilevksiy continued to bail out the defense which should not be happening for the majority of the period. Then, with just under two minutes to go Luke Glendening is called for tripping and Oilers go on the power play for the first time tonight.
Oilers take advantage of sloppy plays
To begin, Lightning killed off the remaining 15 seconds of the Oilers power play. Next, Lightning get another early power play but it would not start to their liking. A costly mistake allowed Darnell Nurse to score a breakaway short-handed goal to cut the lead 2-1. Again, Lightning nearly give up another short-handed goal but this one was saved by Vasy. Miscues from the first period continued to linger into the second period and that allowed Edmonton to continue with the momentum. Minutes later Oilers received their second power play of the night after Brandon Hagel is sent off for tripping. McDavid scored on the power play to even the score 2-2. Nick Paul initially won the face-off but Anthony Cirelli could not keep the puck which allowed McDavid to strip it and score.
Miscues have to stop
Sloppy puck handling continued to haunt Tampa and they would have to back on the penalty kill. Once again, Oilers scored on the man-advantage to take the 3-2 lead and absolutely take over the game. Zach Hyman tipped in the shot from Evan Bouchard as the woes for the Bolts continued. As the period went on Lightning did not have much time in Edmonton’s zone and could not get a chance at an equalizer. However, in the final minute the offense would have some life which the team hoped would carry on into the third period.
A much-needed wakeup call
Do or die for the Bolts with the third period underway. Unlike the previous two periods there were nop early penalties called. Line shifts continued for the Lightning in hopes of sparking the offense and tying the game. Vasilevskiy has done all he could to keep Tampa in the game but mistakes with the puck hurt them all night. Mike Eyssimont did a great job to get pucks to the net which soon led to the game-tying-goal. Stamkos scored his second goal of the game to even the score 3-3 and give Tampa a much-needed goal. This was Tampa’s first goal since the second period and their second even strength goal of the night. The Stamkos goal began to cool off Edmonton’s momentum as it became anyone’s game with half the period gone.
Stealing the win
With goals minutes apart from each other Tampa re-gained the lead and re-gained momentum. First one came from Kucherov with the second coming from the captain to give him a hat-trick. Lightning led 5-3 in the final frame of the period. Darren Raddysh was called for tripping with a bit over 4 minutes to go. Oilers decided to pull Skinner to get an extra attacker on and make it 6-on-4. Bolts kill off the penalty, but Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tips the puck past Vasy to cut the lead 5-4. Net would be empty again with 1:43 left. On the empty net Anthony Cirelli scores to regain the two-goal lead and it would then be a 7-4 game with Stamkos scoring his fourth goal of the game. This was the first four goal game for Stamkos in his career. Lightning rebounded nicely from that abysmal second period and come away with the 7-4 victory with one game left in the road trip.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME STAMMER?! 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/bAvN9gIJxy
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) December 15, 2023
Three stars of the night
Andrei Vasilevskiy – Saved 46 of 50 shots faced
Steven Stamkos – 4 goals
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – 1 goal and 2 assists
