Kucherov, Lightning cruise past Avalanche for 3rd straight win

DENVER -- Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning won 5-2 against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

Jake Guentzel scored twice, and Anthony Cirelli had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (7-3-0), who have won four of their past five games. Brandon Hagel and Brayden Point each had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves.

“It was a productive start, there's no question about that. But it's a hard league to win, especially on the road against a championship-caliber team like that,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “You want to get the lead for a reason because it's, like I said, a tough league and it's a tough league to come back in.

“They made a big push that last half of the game, but we bent, didn't break, and were able to get the two points.”

Cale Makar had a goal and an assist, and Nathan MacKinnon had two assists for the Avalanche (5-6-0), who have lost two straight after winning five in a row. Ivan Ivan scored, and Kaapo Kahkonen made 16 saves in his first start for Colorado.

"If you just look at the chances we gave up early in the game. It's awareness mistakes like young players make in just not reading it quick enough and not getting quite in the right spot,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I think if you take those four plays out of it, we defended hard and defended well against a really talented team that can be, I don't want to say they're an opportunistic team, but they're a super dangerous team if you give them those type of chances.”

MacKinnon (five goals, 13 assists) and Makar (four goals, 15 assists) each extended their season-opening point streak to 11 games.

Kucherov scored to make it 1-0 Lightning when he one-timed Point’s centering pass from the high slot at 1:01 of the first period.

Guentzel made it 2-0 at 3:36 when he one-timed Kucherov’s pass into the open net. Kucherov broke the puck out from the defensive zone, drove behind the Avalanche’s net and dropped the puck to Guentzel, who was alone in front for the tap-in.

“That was just unbelievable. It's just [he has] eyes in the back of his head,” Guentzel said. “I had the open net. So, just an unbelievable play by him.”

“They've been great together this year, and that's a big part of our team, much like some of the big boys they have here [in Colorado],” Cooper said of his two forwards. “They’ve jelled pretty well. So hopefully that continues for the next seven years.”

Conor Geekie extended the lead to 3-0 at 5:32 of the first after finishing on a 3-on-2 with Cirelli and Hagel. Hagel passed from the top of the circles to Cirelli at the bottom of the right circle, and Cirelli sent a pass across the top of the crease to Geekie for the finish.

“We have some special players who can make some special plays. That's the bottom line,” Lightning captain Victor Hedman said. “Third goal was a 3-on-1, and as a D-man, those are tough to defend. So [those] guys went to work and 'Geeks' was able to put it in.”

Ivan cut the lead to 3-1 on the power play when he redirected Makar’s wrist shot from the top of the left circle at 14:56 of the first.

“Against teams like that, that have that high-end skill, you obviously expect them to make those plays, but it's still not always easy to make the save on those plays,” Kahkonen said. "But overall, obviously after a start like that, you just got to battle. You just got to try to make the next save.”

Guentzel scored to make it 4-1 at 6:28 of the second period when he batted the rebound of Point’s shot into the net after it caromed off the post.

“Obviously, a nice play by those guys and just trying to be ready at all times,” Guentzel said.

Makar cut the lead to 4-2 with a wrist shot from the blue line that made its way through a screen from Joel Kiviranta at 10:57 of the third period.

Cirelli scored an empty-net goal at 18:40 for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: Makar (four goals 15 assists) became the second defenseman in NHL history with a season-opening point streak of at least 11 games (Bobby Orr had a 15-game streak in 1973-74). … Kucherov recorded his 250th career multi-point game. He also recorded his 92nd career three-point game. Since Kucherov debuted in 2013-14, only three players have as many (Connor McDavid (123), Sidney Crosby (99) and Leon Draisaitl (92)). … Erik Cernak left the game at 17:18 of the second period after a hit to the head from Avalanche forward Matt Stienburg. Stienburg received a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct for the play. Cooper didn’t have an update on Cernak postgame.