Steven Stamkos had been shut out for the first five periods (plus overtime) of the season, but that drought didn’t last much longer.
Stamkos scored his first of the year in Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
The 25-year-old buried a rebound past Buffalo’s Chad Johnson at the 8:53 mark of the third period to extend Tampa Bay’s lead to 3-1.
As you can tell by the video above, it won’t be Stamkos’ most memorable goal, but it’s good to see him get the first one out of the way.
There aren’t many guys who have a nose for the net like the Lightning’s captain, as he, Rick Nash and Alexander Ovechkin were the only players to hit the 40 goal mark last season.
Erik Condra, Nikita Kucherov and J.T. Brown also scored for the Lightning.
Tampa Bay will play their next game on Oct. 12 against the Boston Bruins.