Oilers give up three in third period, fall 3-2 to Hedman and Lightning

EDMONTON - The Tampa Bay Lightning had an inordinate amount of puck luck on Friday.

Victor Hedman scored a goal and added a pair of assists as Tampa Bay came from behind in unusual fashion to beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2.

Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos also scored for the Lightning (20-17-4), who had some good fortune on their side as all three of their goals deflected in off of an Edmonton skater.

"You earn your breaks and we had goals off caroms, but that's the way it goes when you're believing in yourselves," Stamkos said. "We didn't quit and we got rewarded."

Lightning goalie Ben Bishop made 24 saves for the win.

"We'll take it any way we can right now," Bishop said. "We haven't been getting goals the regular way, so we'll take them any way. We had a really good third period, we talked about it, the guys really wanted it and I think they deserved it."

Justin Schultz and Benoit Pouliot scored in response for the Oilers (17-22-3), who led 2-0 heading into the third period before things took a decidedly unlucky turn.

"We had three pucks go off us into our net with a 2-0 lead, so that part is disappointing, maybe a little bit of puck luck that didn't go our way," said Oilers coach Todd McLellan. "We didn't score enough to outplay our blunders around the net, and as a result we ended up losing."

Oilers goalie Cam Talbot said he had never seen anything like what befell his team on the night.

"It's extremely frustrating," he said. "Especially where we are in the standings. We need every point that we can get. When points slip away like that when you are doing the right things for most of the game, that is tough to swallow."

Edmonton got on the board first, scoring with 4:40 remaining in the opening period as Schultz brought the puck in from the blue line and was able to poke his own rebound past Lightning starter Ben Bishop.

Hedman kept it a 1-0 game heading into the second, absolutely robbing Leon Draisaitl with a sprawling save while Bishop was out of the net on the play with eight seconds to play in the first.

The Oilers took a two-goal lead on the power play four minutes into the second period when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put a shot on net that was tipped in by Pouliot.

The Lightning made it 2-1 three minutes into the third period as a Kucherov shot deflected off defender Brandon Davidson and past Talbot.

Edmonton allowed another own-goal with five minutes left as Taylor Hall inadvertently deflected a Hedman shot past Talbot to tie the game up.

A minute later, Tampa Bay scored its third goal off an Oilers player as a Stamkos shot hit the skate of defender Darnell Nurse and into the net to make it 3-2.

The Lightning are right back at it on Saturday, heading to Vancouver to face the Canucks. The Oilers close out their six-game homestand on Sunday against the Florida Panthers.

Notes: The two teams split last year's series, each winning 3-2 on home ice. They will play each other again in a rematch on Jan. 19 in Tampa… The last time the Lightning won in Edmonton was on March 7, 2007… Forward Iiro Pakarinen returned to the Edmonton lineup after missing the last three games with a concussion… Remaining out for the Oilers were Connor McDavid (collarbone), Nail Yakupov (ankle), Oscar Klefbom (finger) and Andrew Ference (undisclosed)… The Lightning were without Joel Vermin (hand).