Lightning point streak ends at 16 in loss to Sharks

SAN JOSE -- The Tampa Bay Lightning's point streak ended at 16 games with a 5-2 loss against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Saturday.

Tampa Bay (32-8-2) lost in regulation for the first time since a 3-1 defeat against the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 27. The Lightning, who also had a seven-game winning streak end, fell two games shy of tying their record 18-game point streak, set Feb. 5-March 12, 2004. They won the Stanley Cup that season.
"We've got a lot of pride in here," Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. "We're proud of what we've accomplished, but there are a lot of games left. We should feel confident thinking where this team is headed."
WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Sharks highlights]
Evander Kane had two goals, and Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Lukas Radil scored for San Jose (23-13-7). Brent Burns had three assists, Erik Karlsson and Timo Meier each had two assists and Martin Jones made 17 saves.
The Sharks were without injured defensemen Marc-Edouard Vlasic (wrist), Justin Braun (knee) and Radim Simek (concussion). Rookie defenseman Jake Middleton made his NHL debut.
"I think we recognized the situation," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "We dialed into our game and our attention to detail. It's nice when you talk about those things as a coach and you get rewarded for it. A lot of nights you talk about it and even when it's executed, you don't always get the win. For us to back that up and get a win over a team like that is great, and I think goes a long ways with our group."

Victor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for Tampa Bay. Nikita Kucherov's point streak ended at 12 games.
"Looking back, we still only scored two goals," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "I felt we deserved a little better fate. We hit the post three times. I know it's only three games [on the road], but it's the West Coast and guys can get tired.
"Tonight was just not our night. For 16 or 17 games, it was our night. Give them credit; they skated well. Hitting three posts when you're on a streak, those probably go in. Tonight, they didn't. This is still a great group of guys to coach."
Couture gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 9:27 of the first period before Pavelski made it 2-0 at 10:01 with his 25th goal of the season, redirecting a pass from Burns.
Hedman made it 2-1 on a snap shot from the low slot.
Kane's power-play goal made it 3-1 at 4:23 of the second period on a wrist shot from the left circle.
Sergachev scored his first goal of the season 30 seconds later from close range to make it 3-2 at 4:53.
Kane scored his 200th NHL goal at 5:18 of the third period with a wrist shot from the left circle to make it 4-2.
Radil made it 5-2 at 12:20 when he scored on a rebound.
"We're a confident group," Kane said. "We know what type of team we are when we play as a team and we're rolling. I thought we did a good job for the most part defensively."

They said it

"Now it's time to learn from this, turn the page, move on and start a new one." -- Lightning forward Tyler Johnson on the end of their point streak
"I think every game going forward here is going to be a test for us. It's going to be up to us to have the consistency to be able to do the work that we did today day in and day out. That's the hard part in this league; you play so many games and I think that tonight we were extremely excited to play a team like Tampa." -- Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson

Need to know

Hedman has seven points (one goal, six assists) during a five-game point streak. … Lightning forward Brayden Point's eight-game point streak ended (three goals, 10 assists). … Burns (three goals, nine assists) and Pavelski (two goals, six assists) have five-game point streaks.

What's next

Lightning: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Sharks: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Monday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, NHL.TV)