Stamkos nets hat trick, helps Lightning strike down Rangers
Penguins slip past Isles in shootout as Wings clip Kings
TAMPA, Florida, Dec 11, (RTRS): Steven Stamkos recorded his ninth career hat trick and first in more than four years and the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning ran their seasonhigh winning streak to seven games with a 6-3 victory over the visiting New York Rangers on Monday.
Stamkos recorded his first hat trick since Oct 13, 2014, by getting a pair of power-play goals in the opening two periods. It was the first time he scored two power-play goals since Dec 26, 2015, eighth time overall and the second goal made him the third player in team history to get reach 700 points, joining Martin St Louis (953) and Vincent Lecavalier (874).
Stamkos has eight goals in Tampa Bay’s fourth winning streak of at least seven games in the last three seasons. He finished off the hat trick with 9:19 left in the third period with a one-timer from the low slot that sailed by Henrik Lundqvist.
Anthony Cirelli scored 24 seconds before Stamkos’ third tally and former Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh scored the go-ahead goal in the second period as the Lightning won for the 10th time in 11 games and scored at least five goals for the eighth time in this stretch.
Louis Dominique made 23 saves as he continues to fill in for starting goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who returned to the ice in practice on Saturday for the first time since breaking his foot last month.
Cirelli added an empty-netter in the final minute after Jesper Fast nearly scored his second goal of the night.
Kevin Hayes scored in the first period for the Rangers, who could not overcome allowing five power plays and fell to 2-5-1 in their last eight games.
New York went ahead with 7:41 left when Ryan Strome made a drop pass to Hayes, whose backhand from the right circle deflected off McDonagh’s right skate and over Dominique’s stick.
Tampa Bay tied the game on Stamkos’ one-timer from the left circle with 5:51 left, but Hayes tapped in a rebound from the doorstep 58 seconds later. Tampa Bay tied the game moments after Dominque made a glove save on Hayes during an odd-man rush.
Stamkos tied the game for a second time when he ripped a rising one-timer from the left circle under the crossbar for his 700th career point. The Lightning went ahead on McDonagh’s wrist shot from the right circle that trickled under Lundqvist with 7:18 left in the second.
Cirelli’s takeaway on Rangers defenseman Fredrik Claesson led to him sliding the puck through the crease and past Lundqvist, and Stamkos finished it off with his third one-timer of the night.
Penguins 2, Islanders 1, SO In Uniondale, New York, Jake Guentzel scored the decisive goal in the fifth round of a shootout Monday night as the Pittsburgh Penguins edged the New York Islanders 2-1 in Uniondale, NY.
Phil Kessel scored in the second round of the shootout for the Penguins before Josh Bailey extended the game by scoring in the third round for the Islanders.
The shootout capped a taut defensive battle in which the teams combined for 50 shots – 26 for the Islanders – over the first 65 minutes.
Derick Brassard scored in the third period for the Penguins, who are 3-0-1 in their past four games. Goalie Casey DeSmith made 25 saves in regulation and overtime.
Anthony Beauvillier scored in the second period for the Islanders, who were playing the second of this season’s 21 scheduled home games at Nassau Coliseum – the arena the team called home from 1972 until it moved to Barclays Center in Brooklyn prior to the 2015-16 season. New York will play its other 20 home games at Barclays Center.
Goalie Robin Lehner, making his first start since Nov. 29, recorded 23 saves through regulation and overtime for New York, which is 1-2-1 in its past four games.
After a scoreless first period, the Islanders took advantage of a turnover by the Penguins deep in the Pittsburgh zone to go ahead early in the second. Brassard’s pass was picked off by Mathew Barzal, who dished to Josh Bailey. The New York center then passed across the crease to Beauvillier, who beat DeSmith over his glove at the 6:32 mark.
The Penguins tied the score following a frantic flurry in the opening minutes of the third. After Pittsburgh could not convert a handful of shots in the crease, Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield tried clearing the puck, but Guentzel intercepted it and passed to Brassard, who was stationed to the left of Lehner and tucked the puck into the corner of the net at 2:13.
The Islanders controlled the play most of overtime but could not convert a power play created when Brassard was whistled for tripping Valtteri Filppula deep in the New York zone with 2:48 left. DeSmith lost his stick while making a save during one sequence in the Penguins’ zone, but Pittsburgh was able to clear the puck.
Sharks 5, Devils 2 In San Jose, California, Timo Meier
scored twice to lead the offensive attack, and goalie Martin Jones regrouped after surrendering a bad opening goal as the host San Jose Sharks beat the New Jersey Devils 5-2 Monday night.
Jones finished with 22 saves to give the Sharks a second straight win and their fourth victory in the past five outings.
Drew Stafford put the Devils on the board first at 12:05 of the first period with his first goal of the season. Stafford, playing just his second game in a month and seventh of the season, took a sharp-angled shot that somehow squeezed between Jones and the near post.
San Jose responded the way good teams do. Meier tied the game less than four minutes later when he shot during a one-on-one rush and buried the puck just inside the far post.
Then Joe Pavelski gave the Sharks the lead at 18:03 of the opening frame with his seventh goal in eight games and 20th of the season. Pavelski was on the spot for a rebound that he tucked into the cage.
San Jose’s Radim Simek made it a 3-1 game with his first career tally at 7:19 of the second period, unloading a bomb of a point shot that beat the screened Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid.
New Jersey’s Andy Greene responded less than two minutes later with his first of the season to make it a 3-2 game, but Meier again made it a two-goal San Jose lead with another top-shelf rocket at 14:52 of the second period.
Tomas Hertl rounded out the scoring at 14:23 of the third period with a power-play tally. Hertl was parked at the front of the net, and he found the loose puck before sliding it home to give him a two-point outing.
Pavelski and Greene each collected one goal and one assist.
Kinkaid stopped 29 shots for the Devils, who are on a 1-4-4 slide that has dropped them to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Red Wings 3, Kings 1 In Detroit, Jimmy Howard made 42 saves, and Dylan Larkin scored an unassisted goal as the host Detroit Red Wings topped the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 on Monday.
Larkin has two goals and five assists over the past four games. Dennis Cholowski and Frans Nielsen also scored for Detroit, which bounced back from a 3-2 home loss to the New York Islanders two nights earlier.
Anze Kopitar scored the lone goal for the struggling Kings, who kept constant pressure on Howard but couldn’t break through until the third period. Jonathan Quick stopped 18 shots for the Kings, who have lost five of their past seven games.
The teams were awarded just one power play apiece and didn’t score on their opportunity. The Kings had a 10-8 edge in shots on goal in the opening period, but the Red Wings scored the only goal.
Christoffer Ehn threaded a pass through traffic to Cholowski, who lifted a shot over Quick’s right shoulder just inside the crossbar. That gave the rookie defenseman five goals this season. Jacob de la Rose also assisted on the goal.
Detroit made it 2-0 at the 6:06 mark of the second period when Nielsen banged in his own rebound for his fifth goal. Andreas Athanasiou and Thomas Vanek were credited with assists.
Nielsen had gone scoreless into the month of December until he collected his first goal against Boston on Dec 1. Last Tuesday, Nielsen notched the second hat trick of his career in an overtime triumph against Tampa Bay.
Larkin scored late in the middle period when he stole the puck in the Kings’ zone, weaved around a defenseman and beat a sprawling Quick on the stick side. That gave him a team-high 12 goals.
Kopitar prevented a shutout with 6:38 remaining when he banged in a rebound off Howard’s skate. Alex Iafallo and Dustin Brown got assists on the goal, Kopitar’s eighth of the season. It was also Kopitar’s 10 point over the past 10 games.