(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Tampa Bay earned its first-ever Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular-season team, and Steven Stamkos set a franchise record for the most goals as the Lightning beat the visiting Arizona Coyotes 4-1 on Monday night.
Victor Hedman's goal in the first minute of the third period broke a 1-1 tie, and Tampa Bay's top-ranked penalty-kill held Arizona scoreless with the man advantage in the game's last 1:39.
Anthony Cirelli, who also had an assist, and Yanni Gourde each produced short-handed, empty-net goals in the final minute.
Stamkos, 29, scored the game's second goal of the first period. His 384th career tally broke the franchise record for goals previously held by Vincent Lecavalier, who was a member of the Lightning for 14 seasons. Stamkos is in his 11th season.
The Lightning, who improved to 31-6-2 on home ice secured the No. 1 seed for the postseason. They became the second-fastest ever to notch the Presidents' Trophy, doing it in their 73rd game. The 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings did it in 71 games.
Tampa Bay also clinched the Atlantic Division title for the second straight season and fourth time in team history.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots to win for the 14th time in his past 15 starts. He also had an assist on Gourde's marker. Clayton Keller scored, and goalie Darcy Kuemper made 20 saves for the Coyotes, who are 4-2-1 in their past seven.
Keller, a 23-goal scorer last year as a rookie, tallied for just the third time in his past 25 games, giving Arizona a 1-0 lead at 5:03 of the first period.
Richard Panik stole the puck on a forecheck in the Arizona offensive zone and quickly whipped the puck over to Christian Dvorak, who set up Keller in the slot for his 14th goal.
Battling for position with Arizona's Mario Kempe in front of Kuemper less than two minutes later, Stamkos deflected in Ryan McDonagh's long shot for his record-setting goal and 36th this season to make it 1-1 after 20 minutes. Hedman gave Tampa Bay its first lead just 44 seconds into the third period. Cirelli grabbed a rebound and flipped a pass over to the Norris Trophy-winning defenseman, who potted his 10th goal.
Horvat's OT goal lifts Canucks past Blackhawks
Bo Horvat scored the game-winning goal 16 seconds into overtime to lift the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-2 victory over the host Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night.
Horvat buried his 25th goal of the season with a shot from point-blank range on the Canucks' first chance of the extra session. Alexander Edler and Markus Granlund also scored for Vancouver, which won its second game in as many nights and pulled within two points of the Blackhawks in the Western Conference standings as both teams compete for a shot at the playoffs.
Jonathan Toews and Erik Gustafsson scored for the Blackhawks, whose five-game winning streak came to an end. Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko earned his third career victory by stopping 29 of 31 shots. Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford gave up three goals on 34 shots to drop to 12-15-3.
The Blackhawks forced overtime after Gustafsson evened the score at 2 with 3:13 to go in regulation time. Moments after a won faceoff, Duncan Keith slid a pass along the blue line to Gustafsson, who ripped a one-timer through traffic for his 14th goal.
Chicago opened the scoring while on the power play in the final minute of the first period. Patrick Kane zipped a pass from the top of the right circle, and Toews redirected the puck between Demko's legs for his 31st goal of the season.
Kane tallied assists on both Blackhawks goals, giving him 101 points (41 goals, 60 assists) on the season. It marked the second time Kane has reached the 100-point milestone, and he has 10 regular-season games remaining as he looks to top his 106-point performance from the 2015-16 campaign.
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