Kucherov gets natural hat trick in 3rd, Lightning top Hurricanes in opener

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Nikita Kucherov scored a natural hat trick in the third period and had an assist for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on Friday.

Kucherov gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 11:06 of the third, scoring a power-play goal on a low one-timer from above the right face-off circle.

He then scored back-to-back empty-net goals at 17:53 and 19:44 for the 4-1 final and his sixth hat trick in the NHL. Kucherov won the Art Ross Trophy as the leading scorer in the NHL last season with 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists) in 81 games.

It was the season opener for each team.

The Lightning were evacuated to Raleigh on Monday ahead of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall south of Tampa overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning.

“The whole game, everybody was just positive and into it,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Outwardly as a coach you want to be optimistic, but sometimes you’re a little nervous inside, so I wasn’t sure how things were going to go. You’re wondering how the synergy is going to be, and I thought as the game went on it was pretty good for us.”

Brayden Point scored, Victor Hedman had three assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for Tampa Bay.

Jake Guentzel had two assists in his debut for the Lightning. He signed a seven-year, $63 million contract with Tampa Bay when free agency opened on July 1 after being acquired in a trade with the Hurricanes on June 30.

Jordan Staal scored for the Hurricanes. Frederik Andersen made 19 saves.

“We were not good, and I thought (Tampa Bay) played a great game,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They shut us down, didn’t give us a lot of room. We weren’t willing to work hard enough to get opportunities. We created nothing. It was a tough night.”

Staal gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 14:32 of the first period. After Jordan Martinook stripped the puck from Brandon Hagel, William Carrier circled the net and passed to Staal for a tap-in at the top of the crease.

“Our 5-on-5 play was pretty gross, really," Staal said. "A lot of turnovers, a lot of trying to mosey on through the neutral zone when there’s nothing there. We weren’t really ready to embrace the grind and go muck it up down low tonight.”

Point’s power-play goal tied it 1-1 at 2:33 of the second period. He took a pass from Kucherov in the slot and scored top shelf.

“I think he’s the best player in the League at that spot,” Kucherov said. “He can pick up any pass and put it in the net, and he was able to do so. I’m happy for him.”

The Lightning scored each of their power-play goals in the first 12 seconds of the man-advantage.

“We’ve got some special players out there on the (power play), to watch them go to work and score on the big moment,” Cooper said. “We didn’t have a 5-on-5 goal, so we needed our power play to bail us out, and it did."

With a win under their belts, the Tampa Bay players were eager to return home.

“I think most of the guys have gotten reports about their own properties,” Hedman said. “We will see when we get home, but we’re super excited to get back home and hopefully get our lives going again. Hopefully we’re done with the storms for this year.”

NOTES: Kucherov passed Vincent Lecavalier (874 points) for third place on the franchise's all-time points list with 877. Only Steven Stamkos (1,137) and Martin St. Louis (953) are ahead of him. ... Kucherov is the third player in Lightning history to record four points in a season-opening game, joining Chris Kontos (Oct. 7, 1992) and Joe Reekie (Oct. 7, 1992). He became the fifth player in Tampa Bay history to score multiple natural hat tricks (also Feb. 27, 2017), joining Steven Stamkos, Vincent Lecavalier, Freddy Modin and Martin St. Louis (two each). … Conor Geekie played 10:07 in his NHL debut for the Lightning. The 20-year-old was selected in the first round (No. 11) of the 2022 NHL Draft by the Arizona Coyotes and was acquired in a trade with the Utah Hockey Club on June 29.