Corey Perry, Brayden Point, and Ross Colton each scored within a 3:23 span in the second period. At the same time, Nikita Kucherov provided three assists to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 6-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves, and Ian Cole, Erik Cernak, and Steven Stamkos scored for the Lightning. Tampa Bay has dominated the second-year Kraken, winning all three matchups and outscoring them 13-3.
The surging Lightning have now won 11 of their last 14 games.
Stamkos extended his point streak to 14 games (nine goals, 12 assists) with his third-period goal and is just three goals shy of becoming the 47th NHL player to reach 500 goals.
Kucherov reached a milestone with his 401st assist in his 590th game. Only a few active players, including Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby, have reached 400 assists faster. Martin St. Louis previously held the record for the Lightning, doing it in 708 games.
“Honestly, the McDavids, the Points, the Kuchs, these guys can play at a high rate of speed, but they can do it with the puck,” said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper. “Everybody can skate up and back and stop and start all day. You do it with the puck, you do it with pucks in the air, timing, it’s so hard to do, and you’re watching the best players in the world do it.”
Jared McCann and Ryan Donato scored for the Kraken, who fell to 9-3-1 on the road. Two of those losses came in the last three games.
“When that third goal went in, it took a lot out of us,” said Seattle coach Dave Hakstol. “We started a little bit slow. They were on top of us for the first 10 minutes. After the second goal went in, it took us a couple of minutes to recover, but for the next 30 minutes, we were a good hockey team.”
Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer allowed four goals on 20 shots before being pulled in the second.
Perry netted his 410th career goal on the power play at 12:13. Point ended Grubauer’s night with a backhand goal at 13:28 after a slick move past a few defenders.
Point has a four-game goal streak and has scored nine goals in his last nine games.
“He’s an elite player, and he can do elite things,” Cooper said.
Colton capped the second-period surge with a deflection past Martin Jones with 4:24 remaining.
Cole scored 91 seconds into the game, and Cernak made it 2-0 at 7:24 with his first goal in 66 games.
Kucherov earned his second assist and 400th overall with a backhand pass from the defensive blue line to Point, who set up Cernak.
Jordan Eberle blocked Cole’s shot and assisted on McCann’s 2-on-1 goal with 1:21 left in the first period.
Donato scored with five seconds left in the game.
Family Reunion
Seattle D Cale Fleury and Lightning D Haydn Fleury both played, marking the third time the brothers have faced each other in an NHL game. They also played together for the Kraken twice last season.
Game Notes
Kraken D Jamie Oleksiak served the second game of a three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head on Friday. D Justin Schultz, who was hit into the boards from behind on Sunday by Florida’s Ryan Lomberg, didn’t play. “Right now, I’ll label it daily,” Hakstol said. “We’ll see where it goes from there.” Lightning D Mikhail Sergachev left late in the third after blocking a shot.
Up Next
- Kraken: Play at Carolina on Thursday night.
- Lightning: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.
