TAMPA, Fla. — Steven Stamkos celebrated New Year’s Eve Saturday night by snapping a six-game goal drought and helping the Lightning rally and beat the the Coyotes, 5-3, Saturday night at Amalie Arena.
Stamkos scored on the power play with 8:48 to go in the second period for his 498th career goal — and his first since Dec. 13 against the Kraken. The goal also gave Stamkos 13 seasons with at least 40 points, surpassing Marty St. Louis’ franchise record of 12 seasons. With his assist on the Lightning’s fifth goal of the night, Stamkos tied Pat LaFontaine for 89th in NHL history with 1,013 points.
The Coyotes came into Amalie Arena off three straight wins, including upsetting the Maple Leafs, and caught the Lightning off guard early with two quick goals. While Arizona has now lost nine straight road games, Tampa Bay was looking to pick up two points on Toronto in the standings before heading off on a tough start to 2023 with 13 of their next 20 games on the road. Andrei Vasilevskiy started his third straight game, coming off draining back-to-back wins over Montreal and New York.
The Lightning dominated play after Arizona’s furious start. They pulled even on Mikhail Sergachev’s shot that hit a Coyote stick before sailing past Karel Vejmelka at 1:44 in the second to even the score at 2-2.
Alex Killorn gave the Lightning the lead for good with one minute left in the second on a breakaway. Brandon Hagel tipped and redirected in a Victor Hedman pass to give the Lightning their first two-goal lead of the night at 4:26 in the third.
Brayden Point scored his fifth goal in his fourth straight game and ninth out of the last 10 at 10:53 in the first period on a give-and-go with Nikita Kucherov. Point has scored in eight straight home games, a franchise record. He surpassed Kucherov’s mark of seven games, set last season.
Within the span of 34 seconds, Vasilevskiy had given up as many goals as he had in his last two games. The first goal was a weird one as the puck bounced off Vasilevskiy, Zach Bogosian and then Vasilevskiy again before Arizona center Travis Boyd pushed it to the back of the net.
Christian Fischer beat Vasilevskiy and on a rebound to give Arizona the 2-0 lead. Nick Bjugstad stole Sergachev’s attempt to clear the puck out of the Lightning’s zone and beat Vasilevskiy solo at 12:44 in the second to tie the score back up at 3-3.
