Thurs Florida Hockey Round-Up: Bolts Top Knights, Panthers Fall To Canucks

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the go-ahead goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 on Thursday night.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten at 3-0-0. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

Kucherov tied it at 2 during a two-on-one with 12.8 seconds left in the first.

Takeaways

Golden Knights: The line of Eichel, Barbashev and Mark Stone has combined for eight goals, 19 assists and 27 points through five games.

Lightning: Jake Guentzel was the key free-agent signing with Steven Stamkos leaving for Nashville after 16 years with Tampa Bay. Guentzel has fit in nicely on the first line with Kucherov and Brayden Point, and has four assists.

Key moment

Hill made three saves and the Vegas defenders blocked three shots to keep Tampa Bay from scoring during a 1:10 5-on-3 power play late in the second period.

Key stat

Kucherov is the second Tampa Bay player to have six goals in the first three games of a season. Chris Kontos held the team record in the Lightning’s inaugural 1992-93 season.

Up next

Vegas plays Saturday night at Florida. Tampa Bay travels to Ottawa on Saturday night.

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and the Vancouver Canucks got their first win of the season, beating the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Thursday night.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver (1-1-2), with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida (3-2-1) and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

Takeaways

Canucks: Scoring first hasn’t been an issue for Vancouver, which has taken the first lead in three of its four games so far. But Miller’s score saved the night for the Canucks, who improved to 2-8-0 in their last 10 games in the state of Florida.

Panthers: Mackie Samoskevich got an assist on Florida’s first goal, the first career point for the 24th pick in the 2021 draft out of Michigan. It came in his 13th NHL game.

Key moment

Hughes’ goal at 6:30 of the second period for a 2-1 Vancouver lead was one that Florida said shouldn’t have counted. Linesman Michel Cormier dropped the puck for a faceoff, but it never hit the ice and bounced off Vancouver’s Nils Aman. The Panthersthought that should be a hand pass. The NHL disagreed and Aman got an assist on Hughes’ score.

Key stat

Lundell has stepped up in a big way with Barkov out of the lineup. He’s got four goals in a three-game span for the first time and his three-game goals-coring streak ties a career best.

Up next

Both teams are back in action Saturday, Vancouver going to Philadelphia and Florida remaining home to face Vegas in a matchup of the last two Stanley Cup winners.

(AP)