Tampa Bay Lightning center Brayden Point (21) scores on New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, March 14, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Brayden Point had three goals and three assists, Nikita Kucherov added a goal and four assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Metropolitan Division-leading New York Rangers 6-3 on Thursday night.
Steven Stamkos and Anthony Duclair also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 25 saves as the Lightning came back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2. Tampa Bay holds the top wild card in the Eastern Conference — four points ahead of the New York Islanders and Detroit, who are tied for the second wild card.
Point’s nifty backhand pass to Stamkos during a power-play made it 4-3 with 7:15 left in the third, and Point completed his fourth hat trick 2:03 later before assisting on Kucherov’s empty-netter with 3:38 left for a career-high six points that also tied the team record.
“It’s very cool,” Point said. “You know, just one of those nights where everything kind of seems to work out.”
Stamkos has 208 power-play goals, which is three away from tying Gordie Howe for 15th place. His 540 goals overall is one back of matching Stan Mikita for 33rd all-time.
Kucherov, second in the NHL with 112 points, joined Edmonton’s Connor McDavid as the only active players with three or more 70-assist seasons.
“Two of the top players in the world for reason and they showed it,” Stamkos said. “These are huge games and you need your best players to be your best players, and they certainly were tonight.”
Jack Roslovic had a goal and an assist, and Artemi Panarin and Braden Schneider also scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin had 22 saves as New York fell to 14-3-1 in its last 18 games.
“I dont think we gave up a boatload of chances but they got a couple of dangerous players that hurt…
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