Martin St Louis equaled a 22-year Tampa Bay Lightning record with four goals, but Joe Pavelski responded with three of his own in the second period to help the San Jose Sharks rally to a 5-4 victory in the NHL on Saturday.
Pavelski beat goalie Ben Bishop twice in 21 seconds midway through the period and added the winner a minute before intermission.
St Louis scored three times in 7 minutes, 34 seconds in the first period for his eighth NHL hat-trick. The Lightning captain’s fourth goal in the second tied the team mark set by Chris Kontos against Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Ed Belfour and the Chicago Blackhawks in 1992.
Matt Nieto and Patrick Marleau put San Jose ahead 2-1 with goals three minutes apart midway through the first period. St Louis scored his first goal in between, then struck twice more against Antti Niemi before the intermission.
St Louis netted his record-tying goal 2:09 into the second period, giving him eight goals and 11 points in the NHL’s longest current point streak at seven games.
In Philadelphia, Michael Raffl scored the go-ahead goal with 4:15 left as the Flyers rallied to beat the New York Islanders 6-4.
Andrej Meszaros scored twice, with Andy Hall, Jakub Voracek and Matt Read also scoring, while Claude Giroux had two clutch assists for the Flyers.
Brock Nelson, Brian Strait, John Tavares and Cal Clutterbuck scored for New York, who had won eight of nine on the road and five of six overall.
In Buffalo, New York, Ryan Johansen scored the only goal in the shootout and Columbus equaled their best streak of six wins by beating the Buffalo Sabres 4-3.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Martin Hanzal had a goal and an assist as the Phoenix Coyotes held the New Jersey Devils 3-2 to give coach Dave Tippett his 450th career victory.
Also in the NHL, Ryan Getzlaf scored his 25th goal and rookie Frederik Andersen made 34 saves as the Anaheim Ducks got back to their ways with a 3-2 victory over the St Louis Blues, while Jimmy Howard stopped three shots in a shootout to lift the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 over the Los Angeles Kings.
In Saturday’s other games, the Winnipeg Jets edged the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in overtime, the New York Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators 4-1, the Toronto Maple Leafs toppled the Montreal Canadiens 5-3, the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Calgary Flames 3-2, the Colorado Avalanche won 5-4 against the Nashville Predators, the Carolina Hurricanes outclassed the Florida Panthers 3-2 and the Minnesota Wild were 3-2 winners over the Dallas Stars.
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