In Tampa, a four-goal third period, including three straight by the Lightning wiped out any good feelings the Edmonton Oilers had built up over the last two games.
The outburst erased a 4-3 lead the Oilers held, and propelled the Lighting to a 6-4 win on Saturday night.
Jonas Johansson made 39 saves in the win.
“For us to come back, the season is still fairly new, but we haven’t been a great third-period team this year,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “For us to push the way we did, it’s great for our morale. Was our game perfect? No. That first period was tough for us. But second and third I thought we were fine.”
Tampa improved to 8-6-4.
The Oilers took a 2-0 lead in the first period, carrying over some of the enthusiasm from the previous two wins.
Derek scored at 3:38 of the first period for a 1-0 lead to the Oilers, and James Hamblin hit for his first NHL goal at 8:31 to make it 2-0.
“Obviously it was a very exciting moment,” Hamblin said. “I just pointed to the sky. My initial thoughts went straight to my mom. I’ve had that celebration in the bank for a few years now. I think it was a weight off my shoulders to finally score that first one.”
Nikita Kucherov trimmed the deficit to 2-1 off a power play strike with less than a minute left in the opening stanza.
Kucherov then hit for a double just past the midway point of the second period to kot the game, 2-2.
“Stick to the plan,” Kucherov said. “We followed the plan. Just play to our system.”
The Oilers dropped to 5-10-1.
“Overall, I thought the first two periods we played really well, [but] in the third period I didn’t like how we handled the lead,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Their forwards getting behind our defensemen and our forwards not protecting the ice as well as they should have.”
Ryan then connected for a double of his own at 15:55 of the middle frame for a 3-2 lead to the Oilers.
“I don’t think we gave up a ton, but the stuff that we did give up was quality, Grade-A, we can definitely clean that up,” Ryan said. “Definitely not a matter of scoring more goals, it’s a matter of keeping it out of our net. That’s a recurring theme.”
In the third, the Lightning clawed back to a tie, 3-3, on a strike by Tanner Jeannot at 3:54.
With eight minutes gone in the third, Evan Bouchard added a marker to give the Oilers a 4-3 lead.
Tampa then reeled off three straight to wrest the game away from Edmonton.
“I just like the way the guys dug in,” Cooper said. “As the game went on, I thought we managed the puck well and then odd-man [rushes] started coming in our favor.”
Steven Stamkos scored off the power play at 9:28 to tie the game, 4-4, followed by the game-winner from Luke Glendening at 10:07 of the period and a 5-4 advantage.
Mikhail Sergachev scored into an empty net for the 6-4 final.
Stuart Skinner made 18 saves in the loss..
“I thought we could’ve gotten one on the power play, and obviously we could’ve gotten one at the end there to tie it up,” Edmonton forward Zach Hyman said. “I thought we outplayed them for the most part; [we] just weren’t ahead on the score sheet.”
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