Kucherov leads Lightning over Wild
TAMPA, Florida (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored two goals, the first on a power play less than seven minutes into the game, to help the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Minnesota Wild 4-1 on in the NHL 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 has 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.
HURRICANES 4, RANGERS 3
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) — Rookie Sebastian Aho scored the go-ahead power-play goal with 7:32 remaining in Carolina's comeback victory over New York.
Aho also scored the tying goal with 10:56 to play and added an assist. Jeff Skinner also scored, Valentin Zykov had a goal in his first NHL game, and Cam Ward made a season-best 40 saves.
Mika Zibanejad scored two power-play goals, and Chris Kreider added a power-play goal and an assist for the short-handed Rangers. They were without injured goalie Henrik Lundqvist and winger Rick Nash.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, FLYERS 2
TORONTO (AP) — Frederik Andersen made 36 saves while Tyler Bozak had a goal and an assist as Toronto beat Philadelphia.
William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Nazem Kadri also scored for the Maple Leafs. They have won two straight after dropping five in a row.
Wayne Simmonds and Shayne Gostisbehere scored for the Flyers.
