Callahan, Stamkos power Lightning past Hurricanes 4-2

Stamkos scored the Bolts’ second goal to join Vinny Lecavalier (who had 383 goals in 1,037 games) and Marty St. Louis (who had 365 in 972 games). They finished with just the two. Callahan scored off a cross-ice pass from Stamkos 4 minutes later.

Stamkos’ team-leading 25th goal of the season, which gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead, came four seconds before a high-sticking penalty on Carolina center Jordan Staal expired. The Jets remain in last place in the Central Division, and are now 10 points back of Colorado and Nashville (after Nashville beat Boston 2-0 on Thursday night) for the final Wild Card spot in the West.

The period eventually ended, and a second and third look at the play during intermission didn’t change Maurice’s mind about the play.

Just under five minutes into the second, Brown was all alone in front and took advantage of catching Ward out of position on a deflected shot attempt. The assists went to Vladislav Namestnikov and Jonathan Marchessault.

Another few chances in close were thwarted by the Lightning netminder before an empty-net goal from Callahan sealed the win for Tampa Bay.

This was a tough loss to swallow, especially considering how well everyone but the goaltender played. That goal again sparked the Jets, who put relentless pressure on the Lightning during the next several minutes. The Lightning need to strike first and hit hard.

In the second period, the Jets dominated play and outshot the Lightning 9-5. Or was it Matt Carle, who scored the 13 goal of his career in 701 games? Carolina has lost two of three.

When the two teams returned for the start of the third period, Maurice still hadn’t cooled off. He continued to chew out the refs and got into a stare down with one of them. The players knew they hadn’t performed well against the Winnipeg Jets.

First, referee Francois St. Laurent tossed Maurice.

The Lightning won the shootout 2-1.

Maurice said he was not happy with the demeanour of the officials.

“I was upset because you work with these guys every day and you care about them and their wives and their families”, said Maurice after the game, via Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun. “I think that this would be consistent with their overall demeanour regarding the whole incident”. 6, Tampa Bay, Callahan 8 (Palat, Paquette), 19:50 (en). Mark Scheifele, Andrew Ladd (2) and Mathieu Perreault all scored for Winnipeg, who turned a 4-1 deficient into a 5-4 lead.

Jeff Skinner first carried the puck into the offensive zone with some good puckhandling, passing to an open Jordan in the left circle.

After a scoreless overtime in which the Jets had at least four glorious scoring opportunities, the Lightning won in the shootout. Two goals. Now has 200 career goals. “I didn’t get it done tonight”. And Faulk been able to play Sunday, Jordan likely would have been a healthy extra.

With Liles in the penalty box for delay of game, flipping the puck over the glass, the Canes’ penalty killers were aggressive against a team that had struggled on the power play in recent games.