Steven Stamkos and Brandon Hagel each had late power-play goals as the Tampa Bay Lightning closed out 2022 by rallying to beat the visiting Arizona Coyotes 5-3 on Saturday.
In winning their seventh straight home game and for the eighth time in nine December home matches, the Lightning had to overcome an early 2-0 deficit.
They netted goals three times in the second, including Alex Killorn’s go-ahead breakaway goal for a 4-3 lead.
Stamkos scored his 498th career goal and had an assist, and Brayden Point notched a goal and a helper. Mikhail Sergachev found the net, Victor Hedman produced three assists, while Nikita Kucherov dished out two.
Starting for the third time in four nights, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots. He finished the month with an 8-2-0 mark.
Tampa Bay improved to 7-0-1 on New Year’s Eve since 2011. It is 5-0-0 against the Central Division this season.
Opening a four-game road trip, Arizona received goals from Travis Boyd, Christian Fischer and Nick Bjugstad but lost for the first time in four outings. Karel Vejmelka made 30 saves.
On a fast start in the teams’ first matchup, Clayton Keller forced a turnover behind Vasilevskiy, and the puck found its way to Boyd. His shot from in close struck the goalie up high, caromed off Lightning defenseman Zach Bogosian and bounced in for Boyd’s fourth goal at 6:12.
Shortly after, Barrett Hayton led a break and dropped a pass back that Fischer fired on net. Fischer collected his own rebound and potted his seventh goal for a 2-0 lead 34 seconds later.
Just over four minutes later, Point produced his team-high 21st goal by taking a pass from Kucherov and batting the puck out of mid-air and into the net to cut it to 2-1.
In the second, Tampa Bay tied it when Sergachev scored for the sixth time this season. Arizona challenged for offside and lost, and the Lightning were awarded a power play. Stamkos blistered his 17th marker as his club took its first lead by scoring on the power play — tallying twice in 28 seconds.
However, Bjugstad stole the puck in the left circle and muscled in his ninth goal to tie it 1:32 after the Stamkos marker.
Following defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere’s turnover near the Arizona offensive blue line, Killorn scooped the puck, raced down the ice and beat Vejmelka for a 4-3 lead with 61 seconds left in the frame.
–Field Level Media
