Steven Stamkos notched two crucial third-period goals to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning past the Arizona Coyotes 4-3 on Friday in Glendale, Ariz.
With his team ahead 2-1 and 3-2 in the final period, Stamkos scored his 21st and 22nd goals to put Tampa Bay ahead by a pair each time.
Brayden Point scored his 18th goal of the season and Corey Perry produced the 399th of his career for the Lightning, who moved to 5-0-1 in the second half of back-to-back sets.
Tampa Bay won for the fifth time in its past seven road games and improved to 4-1-1 in its past six games overall. Backup goalie Brian Elliott played for the first time since Jan. 22 and stopped 16 of 19 shots for the victory.
Clayton Keller produced a goal and an assist and Alex Galchenyuk and Nick Schmaltz found the net for Arizona, which is 2-8-0 in its past 10 contests.
Making his fourth straight start in the Arizona crease, Karel Vejmelka surrendered four tallies on 32 shots.
The Lightning controlled the flow of play early and led 2-1 after the first period.
Point opened the scoring by skating in from the right and whistling a shot past Vejmelka on the far side at 3:30. The goal was unassisted.
Perry pushed the lead to 2-0 when he pulled in a rebound of Pat Maroon’s shot from in close and banked it in off the Arizona netminder from below the goal line at 17:11.
However, the Coyotes managed to gather momentum when Galchenyuk collected a rebound of Janis Moser’s long shot and maneuvered it around Elliott with 52 seconds left in the frame.
After Alex Killorn’s steal from Schmaltz, Stamkos gave the Lightning breathing room with a snap shot from the right circle at 4:03 of the third period. However, Keller slid his team-best 18th marker past Elliott at 9:54 to cut the deficit to one again.
Stamkos’ breakaway tally at 12:18 gave Tampa Bay a 4-2 edge.
With Vejmelka pulled and an extra skater on, Schmaltz made it 4-3 at 18:22, but Arizona ran out of time.
–Field Level Media
