The Tampa Bay Lightning (17-5-4) defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs (18-8-2) 5-3 on Thursday night in Toronto. The win is the fifth straight victory for Tampa Bay, and it is the 400th win in the career of head coach Jon Cooper.
Cooper became the fastest coach in NHL history to win 400 games, doing so in 659 career games. Bruce Boudreau had previously been the fastest to 400 wins, needing 663 games to reach the milestone.
Steven Stamkos was the star of this game, getting a goal and three assists in the win. His first period goal came on the power play to break a 1-1 tie, but Toronto would answer to make it 2-2 when William Nylander scored with seven seconds to go in the period to make it 2-2 going into the first intermission.
The Lightning took the lead for good in the second period, getting goals from Ondrej Palat and Taylor Raddysh to build a 4-2 lead. In the third period Ondrej Kase scored midway through to pull within 4-3, but the Lightning got an empty net goal from Ondrej Palat - his second of the game - with 29 seconds to go to clinch the 5-3 victory.
Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up the win in net, converting 35 saves on 38 shots against.
The Lightning wrap up their road trip on Saturday when they take on the Senators in Ottawa. Puck drop on Saturday is scheduled for 1:00 PM - pregame coverage begins at 12:30 PM on News Radio WFLA.
PHOTO COURTESY GETTY IMAGES