The Lightning shrugged off their season-long, third-period woes as they scored four times to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 6-4 on Saturday afternoon. They trailed three times in the game and managed to claw back each time before a Luke Glendening goal midway through the third period gave them the lead. Mikhail Sergachev, who finished with three points, salted away the win with an empty-net goal.
Nikita Kucherov upped his season point total with three more as he scored twice and added an assist. Both Kucherov and Steven Stamkos scored on the power play as they converted two of their four chances while killing off all five penalties against them. Tanner Jeannot also added an even strength goal for his third of the season, putting him halfway to his season total from last year.
Jonas Johansson stopped 39 of 43 shots to pick up his second straight victory. Derek Ryan scored twice, James Hamblin recorded his first career NHL goal, and Evan Bouchard gave them a brief 4-3 lead in the third period.
This was by no means a clean win as Edmonton generated 74 shot attempts and 19 high-danger chances while posting a 67.93% edge in expected goals. But, as Coach Cooper pointed out in the post-game presser, earlier in the year, heck earlier in the week, this is the type of game that they typically have lost. Instead they clawed their way back after a rough start to the game to pick up the victory.
The Bolts will look to make it three in a row as the league-leading Boston Bruins come into town on Monday night.
The Goals
Derek Ryan (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Cody Ceci) Shorthanded, 1-0 Oilers
James Hamblin (unassisted) 2-0 Oilers
Nikita Kucherov (Steven Stamkos, Brayden Points) Power Play, 2-1 Oilers
Nikita Kucherov (Mikhail Sergachev, Darren Raddysh) 2-2
Derek Ryan (Warren Foegele, Mattias Ekholm) 3-2 Oilers
Tanner Jeannot (Michael Eyssimont, Mikhail Sergachev) 3-3
Evan Bouchard (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) 4-3 Oilers
Steven Stamkos (Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point) Power Play, 4-4
Luke Gendening (Cole Koepke, Darren Raddysh) 5-4 Lightning
Mikhail Sergachev (Nick Paul) Empty Net, 6-4 Lightning
