Defenseman Darren Raddysh scored in his third straight game and added two assists as the Tampa Bay Lightning extended their home winning streak to seven games by grounding the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 on Thursday.
In the second game of a five-game homestand before the Olympic break, Yanni Gourde also had a goal and two assists as the Lightning improved to 16-1-1 in their past 18 contests.
Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist for a seven-game point streak. The tally lifted him into second place in goals in franchise history with 384, passing Vincent Lecavalier. Steven Stamkos tops the list with 555.
Dominic James scored for the Lightning while goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 22 shots to move to 13-0-1 in his past 14 games. Zemgus Girgensons had two assists.
Kyle Connor scored and goalie Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves, but the Jets fell to 1-2-1 in their past four games.
Just over five minutes into the matchup, Winnipeg’s Morgan Barron, playing in his 300th NHL contest, raced in on a breakaway off a loose puck. However, Vasilevskiy was up to the early challenge and turned aside the shot.
Past the 10-minute mark with the puck in the Lightning offensive zone, Kucherov and 6-foot-7 Jets defenseman Logan Stanley collided as neither player was watching the play.
In visible pain, the high-scoring Kucherov got to his feet after a couple of minutes and skated off the ice, grimacing and eventually heading to the dressing room. However, he returned in the second period.
James streaked into the offensive zone, collected a feed from Raddysh and went one-on-one with Hellebuyck, beating the netminder between the pads at 14:58 at the first period to open the scoring.
Just 1:37 into the second, Raddysh powered a deep shot from up high for a 2-0 lead, but Connor answered with a long tip almost 11 minutes later.
On a delayed penalty, Gourde re-established the two-goal lead by redirecting Kucherov’s pass at 15:17 of the middle frame.
In the third, the Lightning allowed just four shots by the slumping Jets, who won the Presidents’ Trophy last season, and Kucherov hit the empty net for the final margin with 1:08 remaining.
Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh returned from a 15-game absence and logged 20:37 of ice time.
–Field Level Media
