The Associated Press
DETROIT–Nikita Kucherov is in the middle of one of those stretches when the puck seems to do whatever he wants.
The dynamic forward scored twice last night to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.
Kucherov barely touched the puck on the decisive goal but he did enough to deflect it past Jimmy Howard with 18:13 left in the third period, and Tampa Bay held on from there for its fourth-straight victory.
Kucherov had exactly one goal in each of Tampa Bay’s first five games this season.
But after adding two more last night, he suddenly is second in the league in goals–two behind Washington’s Alex Ovechkin.
Tyler Johnson also scored for the Lightning, who now sit atop the NHL standings with 10 points.
Justin Abdelkader and Mike Green scored in the second period to help Detroit erase a 2-0 deficit, but Kucherov broke the tie early in the third.
“I thought we were the better team 5-on-5,” said Red Wings’ coach Jeff Blashill. “I thought we had more scoring chances.
“In the end, the difference was specialty teams,” he added.
“They scored two on specialty teams and we scored zero.”
No other games were scheduled in the NHL last night.
