Friday, 4 a.m.
How many can he score? A hundred? A hundred-fifty? More?
The incredible start to the NHL season continued for the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov Thursday night. He had his third straight two-goal game, including the game-winner, to lead the Lightning to a 4-3 comeback win over the Las Vegas Knights.
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Kucherov now has six goals in three games, not bad for a forward who has been more proficient with his assist total than his goals. (Kucherov had 100 assists a year ago).
Kucherov scored the winning goal with 13 seconds left, caroming the puck off the skate of a Vegas defender. It came two minutes and nine seconds after Brandon Hagel scored to tie the game at 3-3.
The Bolts are now 3-0 on the season, and Kucherov seems intent on replacing the departed Steven Stamkos all by himself.
“You never know if the goal is coming in the first minute or the last minute,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We really managed the puck. When you manage the puck, you dictate the play. Good things happen. It took till the 58th minute for it to happen, but you’ve got to play the whole 60.”
J.J. Moser also scored for the Bolts.
The Bolts trailed for most of the game, but they owned the third period, especially the late going. Kucherov finished with six shots.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy saved 22 of 25 shots.
The Bolts are on the road Saturday night at Ottawa.