Tampa: Nikita Kucherov scored two goals, the first on a power play less than seven minutes into the game, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Minnesota Wild 4-1 on Thursday night.
Kucherov assisted a goal by Andrej Sustr, giving him nine goals and eight assists in his last eight games. Victor Hedman also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves.
Vasilevskiy is 4-0-1 since the trade of Ben Bishop to Los Angeles, and the Lightning are 9-2-3 in their last 14 games.
Marco Scandella scored for Minnesota with 3:58 remaining, only the Wild’s second goal in regulation in their last three games.
Western Conference-leading Minnesota have lost three of four for the first time since early December. The loss also broke the Wild’s streak of 10 straight wins after a loss.
Seven seconds after a tripping penalty on Ryan Suter, Kucherov scored his 29th goal of the season with assists from Ondrej Palat and Hedman. It was the first power-play goal against Minnesota in 12 games, ending a streak of 22 penalties killed.
Victor Hedman made it 2-0 at 11:01 of the first period, scoring his 13th goal with assists from Jonathan Drouin and Jake Dotchin.
Sustr’s goal, his second of the season, came at 4:37 of the second period. It was assisted by Kucherov and Tyler Johnson, who was helped off the ice four minutes later with a lower leg injury.
