Kucherov has four points, Lightning top Flames to win third straight

TAMPA -- Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Calgary Flames 6-3 at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.

Steven Stamkos scored his 30th goal of the season, and Brayden Point had a goal and two assists for the Lightning (42-11-4), who have won three straight and are 5-0-2 in their past seven games. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves.
Kucherov leads the NHL with 88 points (25 goals, 63 assists).
WATCH: [All Flames vs. Lightning highlights]
"We stick to the same routine and stay confident," Kucherov said. "We're just trying to play the same way every time. Sometimes pucks go in, sometimes they don't. It's just fortunate to score so many goals tonight."

Sean Monahan scored twice, and Elias Lindholm had three assists for the Flames (34-16-6), who are 1-3-1 in their past five games.
"I don't think we were good enough from the start," Monahan said. "They're a good team, they're in their own building, and we've got to focus on the little details of the game and areas we've got to clean up."
Point gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 11:54 of the first period. He set an NHL career-high with his 33rd goal of the season.

Cedric Paquette made it 2-0 at 16:06 with a one-timer from the high slot. Kucherov scored from the high slot with Flames goalie David Rittich screened to make it 3-0 with 2:41 remaining.
Calgary is in second place in the Pacific Division, one point behind the San Jose Sharks.
"These are big games and the more experience you can get with these big games before the (Stanley Cup) Playoffs is huge," Point said. "We always want to get up for teams that are high in the standings."
Mark Giordano scored on a 5-on-3 power play at 18:06 of the period to make it 3-1.
Monahan made it 3-2 at 9:13 of the second when he gathered a loose puck in the right face-off circle.
"We could be a little better in front of our net, I thought," Giordano said. "Better plays, cleaner plays and more of a willingness to grind it out."

Anthony Cirelli made it 4-2 at 10:10, and Yanni Gourde made it 5-2 at 16:11.
"Whenever you spot a team three, especially a good team like this in there building, it's going to be hard to come back," Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau said. "We plugged our way through it I thought, got better as the game got going. And then they got the fourth one and it was hard to get back into it at that point."
Stamkos scored on the power play to make it 6-2 at 5:01 of the third period. It's the sixth time Stamkos has scored 30 goals in a season.
Monahan made it 6-3 with a power-play goal at 14:11 off a cross-ice pass from Lindholm.
"We had a really good first period, which was our goal coming off of the third period we had against Florida the other night," Stamkos said, referring to 5-2 win at the Florida Panthers on Sunday. "We're playing some smarter hockey now with the puck. [At even strength] I don't think we gave them much."

They said it

"We haven't been as good with the details of the game since the All-Star break. … We gave up an odd-man rush off a line change, and the one power-play goal we're changing as they're attacking, just stuff that typically we don't do, but tonight we found a way to get in our own way and make it hard." -- Flames coach Bill Peters
"He's an extremely talented player. He has that ability to find guys even when I don't think the guy knows he's open. What I like is that he was shooting the puck tonight. When you're at the net or getting pucks to the net, usually good things happen." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper on forward Nikita Kucherov

Need to know

Kucherov set an NHL career high in assists (61, last season). He has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past two games. …. Point's previous NHL career high was 32 goals, set last season. He has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past three games and nine (three goals, six assists) in his past four. … Kucherov and Point (39 assists) are the second two Lightning players ever to each reach 70 points in 57 games, joining Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis (2006-07). … Lindholm has 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in his past 17 games. …Gaudreau had two assists but no shots and hasn't scored in his past six games. … Giordano (12 goals, 43 assists) is the 10th defenseman in NHL history to have 55 or more points at age 35 or older (he is 35). … The Lightning sent forward Mathieu Joseph down to Syracuse of the American Hockey League to make room for defenseman Jan Rutta.

What's next

Flames: At the Florida Panthers on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, SNW, NHL.TV)
Lightning:Host the Dallas Stars on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN1, SNE, SNP, SUN, FS-SW, NHL.TV)