TAMPA, Fla. — Steven Stamkos scored the tiebreaking goal with 5:38 remaining and the Tampa Bay Lightning won their 10th consecutive home game by defeating the Minnesota Wild 4-2 on Tuesday night.
Stamkos extended his goal streak to four games and broke a 2-all tie when his close-in shot hit the post, deflected off Wild forward Ryan Hartman and slid past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Nikita Kucherov scored into an empty net with 16.4 seconds left, handing Minnesota its third straight loss.
Before the game, the Lightning honored Stamkos for scoring his 500th NHL goal, a feat he accomplished as part of a hat trick in Tampa Bay’s 5-2 road win against the Vancouver Canucks last week.
Tampa Bay’s Corey Perry scored twice in the second period on deflections of shots by Ross Colton. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 35 saves and earned his 250th NHL win, all with the Lightning.
Tampa Bay ended a two-game slide and moved within one victory of matching the longest home winning streak in franchise history, set in 2019-20.
Joel Eriksson Ek scored shorthanded and assisted on Kirill Kaprizov’s power-play goal for Minnesota. Fleury made 33 saves.
Eriksson Ek opened the scoring 3:43 into the second period with the Wild’s eighth short-handed goal of the season. He outraced everyone to a clearing pass by teammate Jake Middleton, deked Vasilevskiy and scored his 17th goal of the season.
Tampa Bay tied it at 9:44 on Perry’s seventh goal.
Kaprizov scored his team-high 27th of the season at 11:42 to put Minnesota ahead 2-1, but Perry’s power-play deflection past Fleury at 18:05 evened the score again.
The Wild had the best chance in a scoreless first period, but Vasilevskiy stopped Hartman on a 2-on-1 break with 40 seconds remaining.
Hartman himself is squarely in head coach Dean Evason's dog house, taking two more penalties in a stretch of undisciplined play that has cost the Wild goals and upset their line rotations. The Athletic beat writer Joe Smith reports that Evason was clearly upset during a post-game press conference, despite the fact Hartman admitted to reporters he let his team down.
“I’m responsible for some of the things that have gone on," Hartman said. "Obviously not a good feeling.”
“He should be hard on himself,” Evason reacted. “It’s stupid. Absolutely stupid.”
The scrappy forward had a breakout season for the Wild last year with 34 goals but has scuffled this year due to a long-term shoulder injury. At this point Hartman has just 5 tallies in 24 games, and finds himself a candidate for a seat in the press box should he not clean up his penalty problem.
UP NEXT
Wild: Home against Philadelphia on Thursday night.
Lightning: Home against Boston on Thursday night.
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