Hitchcock reaches milestone in Blues' 6-3 win over Lightning

St. Louis Blues' T.J. Oshie scores past Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop during the first period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015, in Tampa, Fla.
St. Louis Blues' T.J. Oshie scores past Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop during the first period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015, in Tampa, Fla.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Alexander Steen had a goal and two assists to help St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock move into sole possession of fourth place on the NHL wins list in the Blues' 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night

Hitchcock's 693rd regular-season win broke a tie with Dick Irvin. The Blues coach only trails Joel Quenneville (739), Al Arbour (782) and Scotty Bowman (1,244), who scouted the game as a Chicago senior adviser.

T.J. Oshie, Dmitrij Jaskin, David Backes, Paul Stastny and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored for the Blues.

Tampa Bay got goals from Tyler Johnson, Brett Connolly and Steven Stamkos.

Steen assisted on both St. Louis first-period goals and scored one of three Blues goals during a 3:08 span in the second for a 5-1 lead.

Steen made 3-1 with an in-close redirection after Backes stole the puck from Stamkos and sent it toward the net. After Backes scored 1:56 later off Oshie's backhand, between-the-legs pass from behind the net, Stastny put the Blues up 5-1 on a rebound goal with 4:37 left in the second.

Oshie opened the scoring 1:50 into the game by beating Ben Bishop from the slot following a pass from Steen, who had stolen the puck in the St. Louis zone.

St. Louis went ahead 2-0 when Steen set up Jaskin's power-play breakaway goal with a long-range pass at three minutes later.

Johnson got the Lightning within 2-1 when he beat Brian Elliott from just below the left circle during a power play midway in the second period.

Connolly scored late in the second, and Stamkos got his 29th goal 6 1-2 minutes into the third.

Tarasenko had a late empty-netter.

NOTES: Bishop was pulled after allowing five goals on 34 shots in two periods, replaced by Andrei Vasilevskiy. ... Johnson joined Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov as 20-goal scorers for the Lightning. ... Oshie stopped a seven-game goal drought. ... Tampa Bay C Cedric Paquette missed his second straight game ( upper body). ... The list of hockey elite attending the game as scouts, team officials and broadcasters included Bowman, Jim Devellano, Steve Yzerman, Phil Esposito, Martin Brodeur, Brett Hull, Bob Gainey and Bob Plager.

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