Nikita Kucherov writes his name in the Tampa Bay Lightning record book in several ways and this time, it is to erase that of the current head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Martin St-Louis.
Kucherov, the NHL’s leading scorer, had a goal and an assist in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 3-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday.
While Tampa Bay signs a second victory in a row, the Penguins suffer a third consecutive loss.
With his two points, Kucherov had the 216th game of more than one point since the start of his career. His 17th of the season, scored during a power play, made the score 2-0.
Kucherov collected at least one point in his 11th consecutive game. He now has 44 points in 26 games since the start of the season.
In addition, with an assist on the first goal of the game which was the work of Anthony Cirelli, Kucherov collected an assist in an eleventh game in a row, which allows him to get ahead of the mark of ten that he shared with Martin St-Louis and Brad Richards.
Tanner Jeannot scored the other goal in the victory.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was deprived of a second straight shutout when he blundered to the right of his net with 53 seconds left in regulation and allowed Jake Guentzel to score the Penguins’ only goal.
At the other end of the ice, Tristan Jarry stopped 25 pucks.
Victor Hedman had two assists, which allows him to reach the plateau of 300 at home in his career. He suddenly surpasses St-Louis, which has 298, for second place in Lightning history.
The Penguins have failed to score in four power play opportunities, so they have failed in their last 33 opportunities spread over 12 games.
Quebec defenseman Kris Letang appeared to injure his left shoulder when he fell into the boards following a check at the end of the first period, but he returned to the game afterwards.
Revenge is sweet for the Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights had no intention of letting the St. Louis Blues slip away with two wins in a row. They showed character to win 6-3.
On Monday, the Blues had the better of a score of 2 to 1, thanks to 33 saves by goalkeeper Jordan Binnington. The latter was sent into the fray again on Wednesday, but this time, he was unable to collect the two points for his team in a very busy evening of work.
The match started well for the Blues who scored three consecutive goals in the first period to build a 3-1 lead when they returned to the locker room. After the nets of Jake Neighbors and Kevin Hayes, Jordan Kyrou impressed. The forward slipped between the two Golden Knights defenders before beating Logan Thompson for his fifth goal of the campaign.
It’s unclear what was said in the Golden Knights locker room during the first intermission, but the speech was the right one. The Stanley Cup champions followed up with four unanswered goals. Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault each scored their 12th goal of the campaign to level the score on the scoreboard.
Just 27 seconds after Marchessault’s goal, Keegan Kolesar gave Vegas the lead. Michael Amadio gave his team a two-goal cushion with only 18 seconds remaining in the second period.
Thompson was perfect in front of the Blues’ nine shots in the third period to close his match with a total of 27 saves. Binnington, for his part, allowed five goals on 48 shots.
William Karlsson completed the score in an empty net.
A four-point haul for Rodrigues
Evan Rodrigues tied his career-high with a four-point performance and the Florida Panthers defeated the Dallas Stars 5-4.
Rodrigues finished the game with two goals and two assists. He had a first four-point game on October 14 against the Winnipeg Jets.
However, it was his teammate Aleksander Barkov who gave the local favorites the lead when he took advantage of a rebound in the third period to find the back of the net.
Sam Reinhart scored once and added two assists for the Panthers, who ended a three-game losing streak at home. Carter Verhaeghe was the other scorer, Niko Mikkola had two goals and Sergei Bobrovsky blocked 30 shots.
Mason Marchment and Evgenii Dadonov scored 3:36 apart early in the third period against their former team to make it 3-3.
Radek Faksa and Thomas Harley were the other players to turn on the red light for the Stars, and Jake Oettinger made 26 saves.
