Going into Friday night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes, all eyes were on Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was playing in his first game in over 200 days. But by the end of the night, it was one of Vasilevskiy’s best friends that stole the show.
Nikita Kucherov had a historic game, scoring two goals and adding four assists for a six-point night, joining Doug Crossman as the only two players in Lightning franchise history to collect six points in a single contest.
The Lightning would skate to an 8-2 win over Carolina behind that six-point performance, along with a hat trick and five-point night from Brayden Point. Not many would have made that prediction after a first period that saw the Bolts go to the locker room in a 1-0 hole after recording just one shot on goal in the opening 20 minutes.
As a fairly uneventful first period was coming to a close, Carolina opened the scoring with Jack Drury sending a pass in front for Stefan Noesen, who went top shelf for his fifth goal of the season with 1:48 remaining in the opening frame.
For the next 40 minutes, it was like the Lightning couldn’t miss. Tampa Bay tied the game 1-1 just 1:34 into the second period with a power-play goal from Steven Stamkos off assists from Point and Kucherov. After entering the offensive zone, Kucherov fed a pass to the top of the right circle for Point, who put the puck on a platter for Stamkos to hammer a one-timer past Antti Raanta for his ninth goal of the season.
Shortly after that, Jesperi Kotkaniemi took a tripping penalty, allowing the Bolts to capitalize on the power play once again. In the dying seconds of the man advantage, Mikey Eyssimont left the puck in the left corner for Brandon Hagel, who threaded a pass all the way across the Carolina zone, where Kucherov was waiting to blast a one-timer past Raanta with 10 seconds remaining on the power play. The go-ahead goal was Kucherov’s 14th tally of the season.
On the ensuing faceoff at center ice, Michael Bunting was whistled for a double minor high-sticking penalty when he caught Cole Koepke up high. Just six seconds into the double minor, Tampa Bay made it a 3-1 game.
Following a clean faceoff win from Stamkos, the puck went right to the point for Victor Hedman. Walking the line, Hedman sent the puck to the right circle for Kucherov, who had everyone thinking he was going to shoot. Winding up for a one-timer, Kucherov put the puck right on the tape of Point, who was waiting on the doorstep to tap the puck into an open net for his ninth goal of the year.
Carolina got back within one and made it a 3-2 game after Austin Watson was sent to the box for slashing, enabling Bunting to score a power-play goal four seconds into the man advantage.
Entering the third period with a one-goal lead, the Lightning kept their foot on the gas, outscoring the Hurricanes 5-0 in the final 20 minutes to secure the 8-2 final.
Hagel put Tampa Bay back up by two 5:33 into the third after Kucherov sent a pass up to Point, who slammed on the brakes after entering the zone and sent a pass through a seam to Hagel. Collecting the puck on his forehand, Hagel wired a shot past Raanta for his 10th goal of the year to make it a 4-2 game.
Only 1:20 later, Erik Cernak’s shot was denied by Raanta, but Luke Glendening was right at the netfront to jump on the rebound and jam the puck home with a wraparound for his third goal of the season, putting the Bolts up 5-2.
As the Lightning continued to capitalize on their offensive chances, Point got his second goal of the game with 9:19 remaining. Doing a nice job to fight off two Carolina defenders, Cole Koepke maintained possession of the puck in the offensive zone and found Nick Perbix in the slot, allowing the defenseman to send a quick pass to Point, who roofed a backhand shot and pushed the lead to 6-2.
With 3:15 remaining, Kucherov wasn’t done putting on a show. Taking a pass from Hagel, Kucherov flew into the Hurricanes zone and put the puck into the skates of Jaccob Slavin before regaining possession and immediately ripping a shot into the top right corner for his second goal and fifth point of the game.
Only 1:23 later, Point completed his hat trick with Tampa Bay’s fourth power-play goal of the evening. After Stamkos entered the zone and found Kucherov, the All-Star winger handed the puck off to Point, who took his time and picked his spot before firing home his third goal of the night with 1:52 remaining.
In total, the Lightning scored eight goals on just 14 shots. Kucherov led the way with six points, while Point had five, Hagel had three and Stamkos had two. Slightly overshadowed by the offensive performance, Vasilevskiy was sharp as ever in his return to game action, making 22 saves on 24 shots against for his first win in his first start this season.
Bolts by the Numbers
- Nikita Kucherov is just the fourth player in the past 18 seasons with 35 or more points through his first 20 games played in a season. The only other players to do so are Connor McDavid (3x), Leon Draisaitl (2x) and Steven Stamkos (1x).
- The Lightning’s win marked the first time in NHL history that a team has scored eight or more goals on 14 or fewer shots in a win.
- Nikita Kucherov (2-4—6) and Brayden Point (3-2—5) each recorded five points in the Lightning’s 8-2 victory. The only other time Tampa Bay had multiple players record as many points in the same game was December 7, 2006, when Martin St. Louis (1-4—5) and Vincent Lecavalier (3-2—5) both did so against Atlanta.
- Nikita Kucherov matched Doug Crossman(3-3—6 on Nov. 7, 1992 at NYI) for the most points recorded in a single game in Lightning franchise history.
- Nikita Kucherov recorded the 17th and 18th three-point periods of his career, surpassing Martin St. Louis (16x) for the most three-point periods in Lightning franchise history.
- Tampa Bay’s shooting percentage of 57.1% is the highest recorded in NHL history since the league started tracking the stat in 1959-60.
- Steven Stamkos scored the 199thpower-play goal of his career, passing Brian Bellows (198) for sole possession of 20th on the NHL’s all-time list.
Bolts Quotes
- Jon Cooper on Andrei Vasilevskiy: “He’s one of the best players on our team, if not the best. It’s a momentum swing when you get to have your full arsenal…When you have the guys you’re used to having, it definitely helps and I think the guys really dug in for him tonight.”
- Andrei Vasilevskiy on how he felt in his first game: “A little bit better than average, I guess. The guys played unbelievably in front of me, lots of blocked shots and, obviously, the goal support. It’s remarkable and it couldn’t be more perfect for your first game.”
- Jon Cooper: “I liked the fact that we held them to 12 even-strength shots. That’s what we did. We talked about it this morning and we didn’t really give them anything. When you’re going to do that, eventually we were going to get our looks. Holding them to 12 even-strength shots and our special teams were outstanding. That was the game.”
Krenner’s Three Stars
- Nikita Kucherov
- Brayden Point
- Andrei Vasilevskiy
Lightning Look Ahead
Monday, November 27 at Colorado Avalanche, 9 p.m. ET, Ball Arena
Tuesday, November 28 at Arizona Coyotes, 9 p.m. ET, Mullett Arena
Thursday, November 30 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena - Buy Tickets
