The Backcheck: Kucherov's late goal secures winning road trip

"If we can come out of this road trip 2-1, we'll be really happy."
The Tampa Bay Lightning wrapped up a six-day, three-game road trip through California on Saturday afternoon with a dramatic 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center.
Over the years, the leadership group and coaching staff with the Bolts have aimed to earn more points than games played on road trips. Tampa Bay did just that with the win on Saturday, concluding the trip with four points in three games after wins against Anaheim and San Jose.

"Well, that was our goal," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "Everybody wants to win every single game, but unfortunately, I haven't seen a team go 82-0 yet. You've got to give realistic goals for the guys.
"You want to make the playoffs in this league. You go on these road trips, which, being in our geographic region, we go on four- and five-gamers and three-gamers. If you can pull out more points than games, you'll put yourself in a really good position if you win your games at home.
"I take this as a success. It's been a tough start with all these road games we've played, so let's go home and see if we can string a few together now."

Saturday's contest got off to a quick start with Victor Hedman scoring his first goal of the season just 32 seconds into the contest. After Brayden Point flew up the right wing with the puck, the shifty center found Hedman in the high slot before the big Swede fired a shot over the glove of James Reimer to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.
But Hedman wasn't the only elite Swedish defenseman on the ice on Saturday. Erik Karlsson, who has been off to a scorching hot start for the Sharks this season, answered with his fifth goal of the season 50 seconds after Hedman scored to tie the game at one.
With the game essentially reset, the Lightning pulled ahead with 6:16 remaining in the opening frame. After Alex Killorn ripped a shot off the left post, the puck bounced out to the right circle for Ross Colton, who quickly corralled the puck and fired home his second goal of the season.
Following taking the 2-1 lead into the locker room for the first intermission, the Bolts quickly found themselves tied up once again when Nico Sturm beat Andrei Vasilevskiy over the glove at the 5:36 mark of the second period.
But Tampa Bay answered the bell once more with a go-ahead goal from Killorn with 1:19 left in the middle frame.
With a loose puck up for grabs in the neutral zone, Erik Cernak did a terrific job to win a battle and advance the puck up to Nick Paul for a break into the San Jose zone. Paul then made a crafty little play, banking the puck off the boards and around the Sharks defender for Killorn, who flew in on a two-on-one with Steven Stamkos before firing a quick wrister through the five hole of Reimer to put the Lightning back up by one.
Killorn has spent the last few games on a line with Stamkos and Paul and the trio has manufactured some strong performances on the ice. Killorn picked up his first multi-point game of the season on Saturday with a goal and an assist and has enjoyed playing with his current linemates.
"It's been good," said Killorn following Saturday's contest. "I've played a ton with Stammer. Being with the Lightning, I haven't played too much with Paulie, but he's really good at protecting pucks. He works really hard. We get that one and help the team there."
While his line has had success maintaining zone time and continuously producing multiple chances, Killorn still feels they have more to give.
"We want to be good in the offensive zone," Killorn explained. "I think we could even be better. But we're progressing the right way.
"I think we're getting opportunities. You want to be hard to play against and being one and done is too easy, so we've been working on that."
Heading into the third period with a one-goal lead, the Bolts were forced to go on the penalty kill 4:29 into the final frame after Hedman was whistled for a questionable hooking call. The Sharks capitalized just five seconds into the man advantage with Karlsson netting his second goal of the game and sixth of the season to tie the game.
Suddenly, the building was bumping and momentum was shifting in San Jose's favor. It felt like a make-or-break moment for the Lightning, who were faced with adversity in the final period of a long road trip after surrendering the lead three times.
But Cooper has always preached process over outcome and Tampa Bay stuck with that process all the way through the final buzzer.

"That's what it's always been for us," Killorn said. "Process over outcome.
"It would have been easy to hang our heads there. I think they had a little bit of momentum after that goal, but I think we did a good job navigating that."
With the game tied at three, more adversity came Tampa Bay's way when Nikita Kucherov was whistled for tripping with 7:29 left in regulation. San Jose got their chances on the power play, but Vasilevskiy stood tall in the crease and the Lightning got the penalty killed off to keep the game tied at three.
"The big thing was having to kill another PK off," Cooper explained. "It got dicey there. We had a couple pucks on our stick that we didn't get out, but we got through it.
"We felt that when we got through that, there was a lot of energy on the bench. Some big-time players made some big-time plays down the stretch for us."
The big-time play on Saturday afternoon came off a nifty, between-the-legs pass from Hedman that sprung the combination of Kucherov, Point, and Brandon Hagel, who have been Tampa Bay's top trio since being put on a line together.
Once again using his speed to his advantage, Point darted up the left wing before slamming on the brakes in the offensive zone and finding Hagel near the right circle. Showing impressive patience, Hagel surveyed his options before sending a pass to Kucherov, who was waiting on the back door to bury his third goal of the season and give his team the lead with 56.2 seconds remaining in regulation.
"Great players," said Kucherov when asked about playing with Point and Hagel. "Really enjoy it."

Kucherov extended his point streak to seven games with the goal and found the back of the net in every game on the road trip. Hagel recorded his second multi-point game of the season and extended his point streak to four games. Point picked up his third multi-point game of the year.
With multiple new faces in the lineup, the Lightning are starting to find some combinations that are working well and have averaged 3.6 goals per game over the last five contests.
"It's nice to stick with the same line for a couple of games here," Colton said. "I think at the start of the season, we've been shuffling and trying to figure out what works. These last couple games, it's been nice to get some chemistry going.
"Cole (Koepke) is early on and he's new and he flies around. Vladdy (Namestnikov) has so much speed and poise with the puck. I think tonight we should have been rewarded with a few, but if we can just keep building and playing fast, I think we'll have some success."
With the goal of more points than games played achieved on the road trip, the Bolts will return home to Tampa before kicking off a four-game homestand on Tuesday with seven of the next eight contests being played on home ice.
"I think losing that first game and then turning the page," said Colton when asked what the Lightning can build on following the California trip. "We can't hang our hats. Obviously, this first month was a little bit of a struggle at times. We were on the road for a little bit.
"Obviously, can't make excuses and stuff like that, but it's never easy being on the road for that long to start a season. For us, to find our game and kind of find an identity, hopefully with these two wins, we can build off it and go from there."
With four wins in the last five games, Tampa Bay looks to be finding a bit of a groove heading into this homestand. The results were good on this road trip, but the players in the room still feel there's plenty of room for improvement.
Kucherov's final statement to the media on Saturday amplified that sentiment.
"We've got to be a lot better," said Kucherov.
The Lightning's next chance to be better will come on Tuesday with a matchup against the Ottawa Senators at AMALIE Arena. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET.