EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored four goals for the first time in his NHL career, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 53 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat Edmonton 7-4 on Thursday night to end the Oilers’ winning streak at eight.
Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists to push his NHL-leading points total to 50. Tyler Motte and Anthony Cirelli also scored to help Tampa Bay improve to 14-12-5 with its fourth victory in six games.
Darnell Nurse, Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton. The Oilers fell to 13-13-1, falling a victory short of matching the longest winning streak in franchise history.
Tampa Bay got off to a quick start with a power-play goal 1:07 into the opening period when Stamkos fired a snapshot past Stuart Skinner. It was Stamkos’ 200th career power-play goal, making him the 20th player in NHL history to hit the benchmark.
Stamkos tied it at 3 early in the third, batting a rebound out of the air and bouncing it past Skinner. The Lightning captain made it 5-3 on a shot that went off the post and in for his 12th NHL hat trick, then added his 14th of the season into an empty net.
BLUE JACKETS 6, MAPLE LEAFS 5, OT
TORONTO (AP) — Kent Johnson scored his second goal of the game at 3:26 of overtime to give Columbus the victory after Toronto overcame a five-goal deficit in the third period.
Patrik Laine, Justin Danforth, Yegor Chinakhov and Johnny Gaudreau also scored for Columbus and Elvis Merzlikins made 43 saves.
Auston Matthews scored Toronto’s final two goals to break a tie for the NHL lead with 23. William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Jake McCabe also scored and Ilya Samsonov stopped 29 shots to help Toronto run its points streak to eight at 5-0-3.
Matthews scored on a one-timer from Nylander that trickled in with 1:15 remaining, then netted another with 44.4 seconds left on a one-timer from Nylander. Johnson wired home a wrist shot in the extra period.
BLUES 4, SENATORS 2
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Robert Thomas had two goals and an assist and St. Louis won in interim coach Drew Bannister’s NHL coaching debut, beating Ottawa to end a four-game losing streak.
Bannister was moved up from the Blues’ American Hockey League affiliate in Springfield after Craig Berube who was fired Tuesday night.
Pavel Buchnevich added a goal and an assist, Brandon Saad also scored and Justin Faulk had a two assists. Jordan Binnington made 32 saves.
Dominik Kubalik and Mathieu Joseph scored for Ottawa and Joonas Korpisalo made 26 saves. The Senators have dropped three of four.
CANUCKS 4, PANTHERS 0
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Thatcher Demko made 36 saves after Vancouver added former star goalie Roberto Luongo to its Ring of Honor in a pregame ceremony and the Canucks beat Florida for their fourth straight victory.
Demko had his third shutout of the season and sixth in the NHL. Dakota Joshua scored twice, Brock Boeser had his 22nd and Andrei Kuzmenko added a goal. Vancouver improved to 20-9-1, going 4-1-0 on a five-game homestand.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 13 saves for Florida in the first two periods, and Anthony Stolarz stopped the lone shot he faced in the third. The Panthers dropped to 17-10-2, also falling 4-0 at Seattle on Tuesday night.
Luongo, now part of Florida’s front office, spent parts of eight seasons with Vancouver.
KRAKEN 7, BLACKHAWKS 1
SEATTLE (AP) — Kailer Yamamoto scored twice in the first period, Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal and two assists and Seattle shut down Chicago and rookie sensation Connor Bedard.
Seattle won consecutive games for just the third time this season and the first time without needing overtime. The Kraken snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 4-0 victory over Florida on Tuesday night and followed up by overpowering the outmatched Blackhawks.
Bjorkstrand, Tye Kartye and Eeli Tolvanen scored during the three-goal second period, and Jared McCann and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored 21 seconds apart early in the third period. Joey Daccord followed up his first career shutout by stopping 21 of 22 shots.
Taylor Raddysh scored for Chicago.
HURRICANES 2, RED WINGS 1
DETROIT (AP) — Jordan Staal broke a tie midway through the second period and Carolina held off Detroit.
Jack Drury also scored for Carolina and Pyotr Kochetkov made 25 saves. The Hurricanes finished off a six-game trip with consecutive victories after dropping the first four.
Michael Rasmussen scored for Detroit in the second period for his 100th career point. Ville Husso stopped 36 shots for the Red Wings. They have lost four of five.
WILD 3, FLAMES 2, SO
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy scored in the shootout and Minnesota beat Calgary to improve to 6-2 since John Hynes took over as coach for the fired Dean Evason.
Boldy and Marco Rossi scored in regulation and Filip Gustavsson stopped 36 shots.
Yegor Sharangovich and Blake Coleman scored for Calgary. The Flames are 1-5-1 in their last seven.
FLYERS 4, CAPITALS 3, SO
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bobby Brink scored the deciding goal in the shootout and also connected in regulation in Philadelphia's victory over Washington.
Sean Couturier also scored in the shootout for Philadelphia. Owen Tippett and Joel Farabee scored in regulation and Samuel Ersson made 27 saves.
Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson each had a goal and an assist for Washington. Connor McMichael also scored.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
The Associated Press
