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Stamkos, Kucherov provide spark as Lightning strike down Oilers

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The Lightning jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back as they defeated the Oilers 5-2 during a very physical matchup in Tampa Bay.

For the rest of the league, it must sound like a broken record.

For the Tampa Bay Lightning, it’s just another day at the office.

The Lightning won again on Tuesday night on NBCSN, using their mighty arsenal of weapons to pump five goals into the Edmonton Oilers net in a 5-2 win on home ice, their 11th in 15 tries.

Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, Yanni Gourde and Nikita Kucherov all recorded multi-point games, which has become simply a mere fact of life these days in the National Hockey League.

Kucherov scored twice in the game while adding an assist, Stamkos had a goal and two helpers and Point and Gourde each had a goal and an assist as Tampa won its third straight game.

Some of this stuff isn’t even fair.

The Oilers go where Connor McDavid goes these days and McDavid didn’t factor onto the scoresheet at all for just the second time in 15 games, a result that was evident in the final tally.

McDavid’s goose egg meant the end of his eight-game point streak that saw him amass 11 points. The Oilers came into the game on a recent surge, winning five of their past seven games.

Ryan Strome found his first of the season to cut Tampa’s lead to 2-1 in the second period and Leon Draisaitl brought the Oilers back to within two with his ninth in the third.

Mikko Koskinen was given the start for the Oilers -- he had earned it, going 3-0-0 with a .935 save percentage in his previous three nods in the crease this season -- but even the 6-foot-7 Finn couldn’t keep Tampa’s potent offense at bay.

At the other end of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy was his usual self, stopping 33 of 35 pucks sent his way for his eighth win in 11 starts.

The score likely could have been a lot more lopsided as the Lightning went just 1-for-6 on the power play.

Tensions finally boiled over for the Oilers midway through the third and Milan Lucic took out his frustrations on a fellow human.

Lucic took exception to a hit earlier in the shift by the Lightning.

Lucic was effectively punted from the game after his antics, racking up two minor penalties and a 10-minute misconduct.

MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule


Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck