Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid gets his stick around Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov during the second period. The Lightning won 5-3 on Feb. 23, 2022, in Tampa, Fla.Chris O'Meara/The Associated Press
Corey Perry became the 103rd NHL player to reach 400 goals and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Wednesday night.
Perry had a nifty deflection of Mikhail Sergachev’s shot from the left circle during a power play that put Tampa Bay up 4-1 with 4:36 remaining in the second period.
“It’s exciting,” Perry said. “It’s a great personal accomplishment. I have to give a lot of credit to the guys I’ve played with. I never thought growing up that I’d get 400 goals in the NHL.”
The 36-year-old Perry scored his first career goal for Anaheim against Edmonton in his third NHL game on Oct. 1, 2005.
“Four-hundred goals, it’s amazing,” said Lightning forward Pat Maroon, who had the second assist on Perry’s goal.
Maroon, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning, who were coming off a seven-day break. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots.
“It wasn’t the prettiest game but we found a way to get the job done,” Maroon said. “We stuck with it.”
Connor McDavid had two goals for Edmonton, Zach Hyman scored in his fifth straight game and Leon Draisaitl added three assists. Mike Smith, pulled from a start Sunday against Minnesota after allowing four goals on seven shots, made 18 saves.
“We generated lots of chances,” McDavid said. “I thought we did an alright job keeping them in check, but they’re a great team. They just find ways to win games, and that’s what they did tonight.”
Hyman had a breakaway goal at 17:12 of the second before McDavid cut the deficit to 4-3 skating down the slot 9:39 into the third. Draisaitl hit the post with just over a minute to play.
The last Edmonton player to have goals in at least six consecutive games was a seven-game run by Jimmy Carson in 1988-89.
Kucherov iced the win after stealing the puck in the Edmonton zone and scoring an empty-netter with 3.6 seconds left.
McDavid and Draisaitl are tied for the NHL lead in points with 73.
After winning five straight games under new coach Jay Woodcroft, the Oilers have lost two in a row. Edmonton played for the sixth time in 10 days.
“Are there some things we can do better? Yeah,” Woodcroft said. “In terms of the compete level of our team coming into a tough environment, there were some real good signs.”
Point made it 3-1 at 10:48 of the second when he scored from in close after it appeared Kucherov lost control of the puck skating down the slot.
After McDavid had a power-play goal at 18:10, Stamkos gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead with a spin-around shot from the left circle with 14.4 seconds left in the first.
Maroon opened the scoring 11:57 in after his backhander was stopped by Smith but the rebound went off an Oilers defender and into the net.
The Lightning have won nine straight home games against Edmonton. The Oilers haven’t won in Tampa since Dec. 9, 2009.
Numbers
Perry became the fifth NHL player to score both his first and 400th goals against the same opponent. The others are Jeff Carter (against Florida), Doug Gilmour (Detroit), Steve Larmer (Toronto) and Bobby Hull (Boston). Carter got his 400th last Oct. 14. ... McDavid has a goal in six consecutive road games. Kucherov has 11 assists and 21 points in 11 games against Edmonton. Draisaitl extended his point streak to five games (two goals, six assists).
Up next
Oilers: Play on Saturday night at Florida.
Lightning: Will take part in the Stadium Series in Nashville against the Predators on Saturday night. It is Tampa Bay’s first outdoor game.