Steven Stamkos notched his first career four-goal game and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 53 shots as the Tampa Bay Lightning snapped the Edmonton Oilers’ eight-game winning streak, 7-4 on Thursday.

Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists to increase his league-leading points total to 50. Tyler Motte and Anthony Cirelli also scored as the Lightning improved to 2-2 on a five-game road trip.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and two assists for the Oilers, who fell a win shy of matching the longest win streak in franchise history.

Vasilevskiy’s 53 saves were one short of his career high, set in a 5-4 win at Washington on March 20, 2019.

Evan Bouchard had two assists to extend his point streak to 13 games, the second-longest by an Oilers defenseman behind only current assistant coach Paul Coffey’s 28-game run in 1985-86.   

Tampa Bay scored the only two goals in the first period before Edmonton answered with three goals of its own in the second.

Stamkos tallied the equaliser with his second of the game at 6:48 of the third and Kucherov made it 4-3 six minutes later. Stamkos struck again with 5:58 remaining before Nugent-Hopkins made it a one-goal game with 2:22 to play.

Cirelli and Stamkos added empty-net goals to officially end the Oilers’ run.

 

FIRST CAREER FOUR-GOAL GAME FOR STEVEN STAMKOS!! pic.twitter.com/ETDkrRR9MF

— NHL (@NHL) December 15, 2023

Blue Jackets blow 5-goal lead in 3rd but win in OT

Kent Johnson scored his second goal of the game in overtime and the Columbus Blue Jackets came away with a 6-5 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs after blowing a 5-goal lead in the third period.

William Nylander started Toronto’s comeback just 38 seconds into the third period and Mitch Marner made it 5-2 three minutes later.

Jake McCabe scored a power-play goal with 5:39 left in regulation and Auston Matthews scored twice in 30 seconds, his second coming with 45 seconds to go in the third period.

Matthews’ two goals gave him a league-leading 23 this season.

Toronto has points in eight straight games (5-0-3).

 

Bringing home a W! pic.twitter.com/65PNFmo8MX

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) December 15, 2023

Canucks’ Demko shuts out Panthers

Thatcher Demko made 36 saves and Dakota Joshua scored twice to lead the Vancouver Canucks to their fourth straight win, 4-0 over the Florida Panthers.

Demko turned away 15 shots in the first period, six in the second and 15 more in the third for this third shutout of the season.

Brock Boeser and Andrei Kuzmenko also had goals and the Canucks joined Vegas as the only teams to reach 20 victories this season.

Florida suffered a second consecutive 4-0 loss following Tuesday’s defeat at Seattle.

It’s only fitting Demko’s first star on a night like tonight! pic.twitter.com/NLaHkS6VdW

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) December 15, 2023