Steven Stamkos carries Lightning past Flyers, 8-7

PHILADELPHIA -- Steven Stamkos had his second hat trick of the season and added two assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning overcame a two-goal deficit Thursday night to beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 8-7.

The 20-year-old Stamkos leads the NHL with 19 goals and 35 points.

Nate Thompson scored the tiebreaking goal at 5:19 of the third period, flicking a rebound off Dana Tyell’s shot past backup goalie Brian Boucher to complete the scoring.

Philadelphia, whose 10-game points streak ended Tuesday night in Montreal, lost its second straight and also had its seven-game home winning streak stopped.

Adam Hall, Ryan Malone, Brett Clark and Steve Downie also scored for Tampa Bay, and Martin St. Louis had five assists. Nikolay Zherdev scored twice for Philadelphia, and Andreas Nodl, Jeff Carter, Scott Hartnell, Danny Briere and Andrej Meszaros also scored.

The Flyers scored the first two goals 42 seconds apart in a nine-goal first period, beginning at 4:21. Nodl flipped a rebound off Zherdev’s shot past Dan Ellis, then Zherdev scored his own goal by redirecting Matt Carle’s cross-ice pass into an open net.

Tampa Bay had similar rapid-fire success against Sergei Bobrovsky, who was making his 12th straight start. The Lightning beat the rookie twice in a 16-second span. Stamkos scored a power-play wrist shot that sailed past Bobrovsky’s stick side, and Hall knocked in a rebound off Victor Hedman’s shot.

Continuing the relentless theme of the night, the Flyers quickly retook the lead less than a minute later when Carter’s shot slipped under Ellis’ pads. Malone immediately answered with a power-play one-timer.

Ellis was pulled after allowing Hartnell’s deflection to elude him. Backup goalie Mike Smith followed suit, surrendering an open-net goal to Briere with less than two minutes to go in the first period.

Bobrovsky didn’t last much longer, surrendering a goal to Clark to make the score 5-4. The defenseman’s shot actually went through the net. Bobrovsky was replaced in the second period by Brian Boucher.

Scoring didn’t cease when the players returned, with Stamkos tying the score with his second goal. The Flyers regained a two-goal lead with Zherdev’s second goal and Meszaros’ score.

Downie’s pulled the Lightning within a goal, and Stamkos’ power-play one-timer with 1:01 left in the second period tied it.