Wednesday, 4 a.m.
No matter what sport you play, no matter what fear you are measuring, 500 is a lot.
Think about it. 500 home runs gets you into the baseball Hall of Fame. 500 miles can win an auto race.
And 500 assists will carve out a legacy.
Steven Stamkos notched his 500th assist Friday night, finding Alex Killorn with a game-winning goal in overtime as the Lightning beat the Dallas Stars, 5-4. The assists came just before his 500th goal (he
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has 489).
"For a guy that a lot of people think is just a shooter, I’ll rub that in their face a little bit," Stamkos said, grinning. "I got the assist first. . I’ve played a long time. I’ve played with some really great players. It’s pretty good to do it at home in a win."
The Bolts were able to overcome some flaws in the game. They had 19 giveaways. They gave up their fifth shorthanded goal of the season (they had five all of last season) when Mikhail Sergachev gave the puck away in front of his own net.
Still, the Bolts were able to gather themselves and win in overtime when Killorn scored.
"It was just kind of a two-on-one situation," Killorn said. "I really wanted to find Sergie but it wasn’t there. So I ended up taking a quick shot and it ended up going in, and I fell over a bunch of times afterwards.
"It’s pretty cool to play with (Stamkos) on the same line. He’ll go down as one of the best players ever to play this game. I was really happy for him to have his 500th tonight."
Also scoring for the Bolts were Nick Paul, Stamkos, Ian Cole and Ross Colton.
Brian Elliott had 28 saves for the Bolts to get his fourth win of the season.
“I think we’re still finding ourselves," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "With every game, guys are getting more comfortable with each other. We’re making strides. Dallas has beaten a lot of good teams. We played well against them."
Tampa Bay is home at Amalie Arena on Thursday night against the Calgary Flames. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:10 p.m.
