Sunday, 4 a.m.
The Tampa Bay Lightning had the struggling New York Rangers seeing double Saturday night. It wasn’t a pleasant sight.
The Lightning had its way with the Rangers. Twice.
They scored two short-handed goals.
They scored two power play goals.
But the most important 1-2 punch the Bolts threw at the Rangers was the familiar one of the dynamic duo, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov.
Point, who ended the game tied for the league lead in goals with 24, scored twice and had an assist. Kucherov, who finished the game tied for second in points, had two assists and a goal.
Together , the two led the Bolts to their 20th win of the season, a 6-2 thrashing of the Rangers.
Team captain Victor Hedman set a Lightning record with his 1,083rd career game.
"Is that a recipe to make the playoffs and go far in the playoffs?" said coach Jon Cooper. "No. If I’m sitting here doing the presser for the Rangers (I'd say) 'We did a lot of good things and the puck didn’t go in the net for us and it did for the other team "
New York had 44 shots on goal, but Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy saved a season-high 42 of them.Vasilevskiy stopped 15 of 17 shots in the first period.
The Bolts scored two short-handed goals, one by Ryan McDonaugh and another by Anthony Cirelli, The Bolts also scored two on the power play, one by Point and one by Jake Guentzel.
The Bolts have won six of their last seven games. They’re 8-2 in their last 10.
The Bolts are home again today at Amalie Arena against Montreal. The puck is scheduled to drop at 5 p.m.