Stamkos scores 100th career goal in Lightning win

Steven Stamkos scored his 26th goal this season and the 100th of his career, leading the Tampa Bay Lightning past the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 on Monday night.

Stamkos had one of three Lightning goals late in the second period that put Tampa Bay ahead 5-1. The center's milestone goal came in his 194th NHL game.

Dominic Moore, Martin St. Louis, Randy Clark and Sean Bergenheim also scored for the Lightning. Tampa Bay is 10-2-2 at home.

Sergei Samsonov had the Carolina goal. Hurricanes backup goalie Justin Peters started in place of Cam Ward, who missed the Southeast Division game due to a mild infection on his forehead.

Ward had started the Hurricanes' previous 10 games.

Clark started the second-period surge with a goal to make it 3-1 at 14:51. Stamkos (20 years, 316 days) became the sixth NHL player to reach 100 goals before his 21st birthday with a power-play tally at 16:26.

Other players with 100 goals before turning 21 include Wayne Gretzky, Jimmy Carson, Brian Bellows, Dale Hawerchuk and Ilya Kovalchuk.

Bergenheim extended the Lightning advantage to 5-1 during a power play with 1:02 left in the second. The left wing was stopped on a penalty shot by Peters with 5:10 remaining in the third.

Moore stopped his 18-game goal drought and put the Lightning up 1-0 at 5:48 of the first. After Samsonov tied it on a power play at 15:52, St. Louis gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead from the left circle with 1 second left in the first.

St. Louis also had two assists.

NOTES: Lightning G Mike Smith hurt his left knee during a morning practice and is expected to be sidelined approximately two weeks. He was replaced by Dan Ellis, who made 21 saves. ... Samsonov hadn't scored a goal in his previous 10 games. ... Peters came off the bench once — playing 58 minutes on Dec. 15 against Florida — over the previous 10 games. ... Lightning LW Ryan Malone left with an upper-body injury. ... Tampa Bay captain Vincent Lecavalier got his 750th career point on Bergenheim's goal.