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The Tampa Bay Lightning gave Ben Bishop quite the homecoming Thursday night at AMALIE Arena, scoring six goals on their former netminder and defeating the Dallas Stars 6-1.

Before the game, all of the hype and hoopla surrounded Bishop's return to Tampa Bay to take on his former team and the goalie he mentored.

The first period pretty much matched the hype as the game started out how everyone expected. It was a hard-fought 20 minutes by both teams that even had some fisticuffs between Vladislav Namestnikov and Dan Hamhuis. No goals were scored and both Bishop and Andrei Vasilevskiy showed that they were bringing their A-game.

Unfortunately for Bishop, his A-game only lasted for the opening period. Steven Stamkos broke the scoreless tie 47 seconds into the middle period, recording his first of two goals and first of four points on the night. The Stars would retaliate with a goal of their own when Radek Faksa connected on a rather unexciting breakaway. That would be it for Dallas in terms of scoring but the Bolts were far from through. Both Mikhail Sergachev and Brayden Point would find the back of the net before the second period came to an end, making it 3-1.

Tampa Bay would score three more goals in the final period. Stamkos would pot his 10th of the year, Dotchin would later add to the lead with his second goal of the season, and Nikita Kucherov would seal the deal with his NHL leading 17th goal.

Stamkos remains at the top of the league in points with 35 while Kucherov sits two points behind him. The most amazing thing is that the player third in the league in that category, Johnny Gaudreau, is a whole seven points behind Kucherov.

Though it may have been unintentional, most of the focus in regards to goaltending surrounded the returning Bishop. However, Vasilevskiy's effort cannot go unnoticed. He stopped 27 of the Stars 28 shots to secure his league-leading 14th win of the season.

With 32 points in 19 games, Tampa Bay is simply on fire with everything going their way. They are rolling through their competition and currently sporting a five-game winning streak. The Bolts will look to make that a six-game winning on Saturday when they host the New York Islanders.

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