Rout by Lightning just adds to Ducks' woes
Tampa Bay's stars came out Saturday night, and the reeling Ducks couldn't do much about it.
Steven Stamkos scored a pair of power-play goals during a 3:51 span in the second period and had an assist, NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov had three assists, and the Lightning beat the Ducks 5-1.
Stamkos has 204 power-play goals, which ties Wayne Gretzky for 17th place. The center has 533 goals overall and moved into a tie for 35th place with Frank Mahovlich. He had just two goals in his previous 12 games after a four-goal game at Edmonton last month.
“That's kind of weird,” Stamkos said about tying Gretzky. “It goes to show he did a lot of damage not
TAMPA, FLA. >>
on the power play, too.”
Kucherov became the 183rd player to reach 800 points and has 72 this season.
Victor Hedman, Calvin de Haan and Brandon Hagel also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves as Tampa Bay won its third straight.
Lukas Dostal stopped 36 shots and Frank Vatrano had a powerplay goal for the Ducks, who have lost nine of 11 (2-8-1).
Tampa Bay was 3 for 3 on the power play.
“In a game like this you can't have penalties,” Ducks right wing Jakob Silfverberg said. “They scored on them. It's tough to come back from that.”
The game got chippy after Ducks right wing Brett Leason was hurt on a hard check by Lightning defenseman Emil Martinsen Lilleberg six minutes into the second. Leason didn't return due to an upper-body injury.
“That changed the game for us,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “I honestly thought we were asleep in the first period. I think the players knew my feelings after the first, I hope the kid's OK. It was a pretty clean hit. He kind of brought us into the fight.”
Ducks coach Greg Cronin had no update postgame on Leason.
Six minutes later Hedman received two minor penalties and a 10-minute misconduct during a scrum.
Stamkos made it 2-0 at 10:56 of the second. After Vatrano scored on the power play, Stamkos got the goal back when his pass went off Ducks defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin's stick at 14:47.
De Haan's and Hagel's goals came in the third period. Hedman scored on a second-period power play.
Ducks left wing Alex Killorn, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Lightning, was honored with a video tribute and received a loud ovation in his first game back in Tampa.
“A moment in my career I'll never forget,” Killorn said. “It was special.”