@jayRecher
Aren't you glad he's on OUR side now?
Corey Perry scored his 400th NHL goal & Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the visiting Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Wednesday night at Amalie Arena.
Perry reached the milestone when he deflected a Mikhail Sergachev shot on the power play at 15:24 of the 2nd period. The veteran winger rejoiced by triumphantly raising both arms in the air and getting swarmed by his teammates. He is now the 103rd player in NHL history to reach the 400-goal plateau and 9th active player to do so, joining Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Evgeni Malkin, Joe Thornton, Patrick Kane, Joe Pavelski and Jeff Carter.
The Lightning played a very nice video package recognizing this incredible achievement, and you can see that BELOW.
Patrick Maroon, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point & Nikita Kucherov also scored for Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring at 11:57 of the 1st when Maroon's effort in front led to a goal.
With Anthony Cirelli speeding into the offensive zone, he threw a puck in front that was deflected by Maroon & saved by Edmonton goaltender Mike Smith. Luckily for the Bolts, the puck then bounced off of Oilers forward Devin Shore and past Smith to give Tampa Bay the lead.
Edmonton evened the score on a goal from.....who else...Connor McDavid.
Following a penalty to Stamkos for interfering with McDavid, the Edmonton superstar scored on the subsequent power play at 18:10 to tie the score 1-1.
It looked like we were heading to the first intermission with that score, but the Captain answered right back.
With just 14.4 seconds left in the opening period, Stamkos wheeled and fired a shot from the faceoff dot over the blocker of Smith to give Tampa Bay the 2-1 lead.
Point made it 3-1 at 10:48 of the 2nd when he stuffed in a rebound from the top of the crease on a delayed penalty call.
McDavid scored his second of the night at 9:39 of the 3rd, but that's as close as Edmonton would get.
Kucherov added an empty net goal with 3.6 seconds left to seal the deal for Tampa Bay.
Smith made 18 saves in defeat for the Oilers.
Team Tampa Bay in the House : The love for the Tampa Bay Lightning is real, as evidenced by Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier & Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski both in attendance. Check 'em out down below!
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SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - Maroon - (Cirelli) - 11:57
- Edmonton - PPG - McDavid - (Barrie, Draisaitl) - 18:10
- Tampa Bay - Stamkos - (Killorn, Sergachev) - 19:45
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Point - (Kucherov) - 10:48
- Tampa Bay - PPG - Perry - (Sergachev, Maroon) - 15:24
- Edmonton - Hyman - (Draisaitl) - 17:12
3rd Period
- Edmonton - McDavid - (Hyman, Ceci) - 9:39
- Tampa Bay - ENG - Kucherov - (Unassisted) - 19:56
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PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - Stamkos - (Interference) - 17:53
2nd Period
- Edmonton - Nugent-Hopkins - (Holding) - 11:20
- Edmonton - Draisaitl - (Tripping) - 13:28
3rd Period
- Edmonton - Yamamoto - (Delay of Game) - 2:34
- Tampa Bay - Hedman - (Holding) - 3:39
- Edmonton - Kane - (Tripping) - 4:02
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What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Saturday night in Nashville to face the Predators in the Stadium Series. Puck drop is slated for 7:30pm with the pregame show starting at 6:30pm on Lightning PowerPlay & NewsRadio WFLA.
Photo: Getty Images North America
PHOTO : Getty Images