Nikita Kucherov reached a personal milestone and helped the Tampa Bay Lightning move closer to clinching the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Kucherov became the second player in the NHL to reach 100 points this season Quenton Nelson Youth Jersey , and the Lightning took a two-point lead in the Atlantic Division by beating the Buffalo Sabres 7-5 Friday night.
Kucherov scored in the first period and got his 100th point assisting on Dan Girardi’s goal 1:04 into the second that gave Tampa Bay a 4-2 lead.
”It’s something special,” Kucherov said. ”I’ll definitely remember it the rest of my life.”
Edmonton’s Connor McDavid tops the league with 106 points. According to the NHL, this is the first season since 2009-10 with multiple 100-point players.
The Lightning got two goals from Anthony Cirelli, while Yanni Gourde, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman also scored. Alex Killorn had three assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots.
Tampa Bay can wrap up the division title and the best record in the East with a win in its season finale Saturday night at Carolina, or a loss by second-place Boston in either of its final two games.
”Is there anything else that needs to be said?” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. ”Win a hockey game, win the division.”
The Lightning played their second consecutive game without center Steven Stamkos (lower-body injury), who is expected to be back for the playoffs.
Casey Mittelstadt and Alexander Nylander each got his first NHL goal for the last-place Sabres. The Elias Sports Bureau says it was first time two Buffalo players got their first goals in the same game since May 3 Calvin Ridley Youth Jersey , 1995, when Curtis Brown and Wayne Primeau accomplished the feat.
Jason Pominville, Jordan Nolan and Kyle Okposo also scored for Buffalo, and Chad Johnson had 27 saves.
”We made too many mistakes,” Mittelstadt said.
After Girardi scored, Buffalo got goals from Pominville, Nolan and Okposo, during a power play Leighton Vander Youth Esch Jersey , to go ahead 5-4 after the second period.
The Lightning rallied on third-period goals 47 seconds apart by Cirelli (6:15) and Point (7:02) in taking a 6-5 advantage. Hedman added an empty-netter.
”We didn’t play well in the second and came back in the third, and played the right way,” Kucherov said.
Sabres center Jack Eichel called the blown lead ”frustrating.”
”I thought, maybe, we got a little passive,” Eichel said.
The teams combined for five goals in the opening 9:40 of the game. Gourde, who put Tampa Bay up 3-2, set team records for goals (25) and points (64) by a rookie.
Cirelli and Kucherov also had first-period goals for the Lightning Courtland Sutton Broncos Jersey , while Mittelstadt, on the power play, and Nylander scored the Buffalo goals.
NOTES: Gourde’s goal was his first in 14 games. … This was the 22nd time in 81 games that Buffalo (16-1-5) led after two periods.
UP NEXT
Sabres: Close out the regular season Saturday night at Florida.
Lightning: Will look to extend their franchise-record breaking road win total to 26 against the Hurricanes.
Alex Ovechkin is bringing the Stanley Cup to the World Cup.
Fresh off winning the NHL title, the Washington Capitals forward is continuing his summer-long victory tour by taking the trophy to Moscow on Saturday, where it will be exhibited at a ”fan fest” public viewing site ahead of Russia’s quarterfinal game against Croatia.
Ovechkin wrote on Instagram, ”Dear friends, I’ll be happy to see everyone who wants to take a photo with the Stanley Cup.”
Ovechkin was in his native Moscow on Sunday to see Russia beat Spain on penalties in the round of 16 following a 1-1 draw after extra time.
The NHL veteran is hugely popular in Russia, where it’s not uncommon to see fans wearing Capitals hats and other gear. He led the team to its first Stanley Cup in his 13th season after nine consecutive playoff appearances ended in disappointment.
The victory was emotional for Ovechkin Baker Mayfield Jersey Elite , who brought the cup back to Washington for an entertaining days-long celebration that included a keg stand, shirtless swimming in a fountain and posing with the cup in bed alongside his wife, Nastya.
He also threw out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals game – asking for and receiving a do-over – and greeted hundreds of thousands of fans during a parade along the National Mall.
—
.
