Avalanche edge Lightning, extend point streak to 18 games

The Colorado Avalanche extended their point streak to 18 games with a 3-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Ball Arena in Denver on Thursday.

It's the longest point streak in the NHL since the Boston Bruins earned a point in 19 straight games from January 29-March 9, 2019.
Devon Toews had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (33-8-4), who are 16-0-2 during their streak, have won 11 of 12 and also have a 22-game home point streak (20-0-2). Darcy Kuemper made 35 saves.
"[Tampa Bay] is definitely kind of a measuring stick for the rest of the League with the success they've had over the last couple of years," Kuemper said. "I think as a team, this is a game where we want to be at our best."
Brayden Point had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (30-11-6), who are 7-2-1 in their past 10 games. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 44 saves.
"I don't think we've ever played any slower to start," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "We really fed into their game and sure enough they're up 2-0 and that was the difference. We're way better than that. The last 50 minutes we were fine. We should have come out a little better than we did."
Gabriel Landeskog scored his 20th goal of the season to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 2:43 of the first period. He redirected the initial shot from Mikko Rantanen.

Toews made it 2-0 at 6:16 when he scored off a back-door pass from Nazem Kadri during a 4-on-4.
"I felt like everybody was ready to go and we put 24 shots on them in the first period ... just trying to feed off of that the whole game," Landeskog said. "Even halfway through the second when they started pushing, I thought we did a pretty good job of keeping it to the outside and pushing back."
Nikita Kucherov made it 2-1 at 10:45 with a tap-in goal from close range off a touch pass from Point.
"It was two good teams fighting for every inch out there," Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. "You feed a team and you give them momentum and they capitalize.
"It was close down the stretch there, but like I said, we don't want to give ourselves a hole like that and force ourselves to climb back into it. Obviously 'Vasy' gave us a chance there weathering a storm in the first period."
Valeri Nichushkin extended the Avalanche lead to 3-1 at 1:56 of the second period with a wrist shot off a 2-on-1 rush that beat Vasilevskiy to the near post.

Point made it 3-2 at 15:54 with a breakaway goal set up by a stretch pass from Mikhail Sergachev that split two defenders.
"I was pretty flat-footed so I just tried to skate away from those two guys," Point said. "I just made a quick move and lucky that it went post and in."
The Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker with 3:14 left in the third period and controlled much of the possession time in their offensive zone, but Kuemper made eight saves in the final stretch to close out the game.
"I thought we did a great job of keeping the puck away from the front of our net, had a couple of big blocks," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I thought we did a really nice job of collapsing in there, making sure they had to shoot from the perimeter. Darcy makes a couple of saves, the guys did a nice job clearing the rebounds."
NOTES: The 18-game point streak extends the Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques record. The previous mark was 16, from Dec. 27, 2000-Jan. 30, 2001. … The Avalanche swept the season series against the Lightning (2-0-0) for the first time since 2009-10. ... Kadri has scored 10 points (four goals, six assists) during a six-game point streak. He has matched his NHL career high with 61 points (19 goals, 42 assists). ... Point has scored 19 points (10 goals, nine assists) in his past 17 games. ... Avalanche defensemen have accounted for an NHL-high 44 goals this season. ... Kucherov had a game-high eight shots on goal.