Tampa Bay started about as well as a road team can on Saturday to earn the sweep of their three-game California trip with a 7-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center.
Darren Raddysh scored a hat-trick, Nikita Kucherov registered a season-high five points, and the Lightning pushed their win streak to seven games—all while claiming the top spot in the Eastern Conference for the time being.
Tampa Bay scored three goals in the first 6 minutes, 46 seconds of game time to take a commanding lead over the host Sharks. Their win capped a perfect 3-0-0 road trip as they now return home to Benchmark International Arena ahead of Tuesday’s game against the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche.
The Lightning improved to 25-13-3 and have matched their season-long win streak. This marks the first time since the 2019-20 season that Tampa Bay has posted multiple win streaks of at least seven games in the same campaign.
“Got the lead, extended the lead and protected the lead. That was basically the recipe,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said postgame. “Pretty proud of the guys. You get the first two (wins), maybe you can get a little complacent, but they didn’t. You jump out, you get three quick ones, and I was just proud of, ‘Let’s go out and take all the points.’”
Brayden Point kept his hot streak going to start the scoring on Saturday. Point buried a rush chance, accepting a cross-ice pass from Max Crozier in the left faceoff circle before firing his shot inside the right goalpost to extend his goal-scoring streak to three straight games only 2 minutes, 37 seconds after the opening puck drop.
Raddysh made it 2-0 with his one-timer from the right faceoff circle that slipped through San Jose goalie Yaroslav Askarov 4:08 into the game. The goal was Raddysh’s 10th of the season and came on a pass from Nikita Kucherov, who also assisted on Point’s game-opening goal.
Brandon Hagel pushed the lead to 3-0 with another one-timed goal, this one from the hashmarks off a pass from Jake Guentzel 6:46 into the first period.
“It seemed like we were ready to play today,” Point said. “At the end of this road trip, it’s been I think one of our longer ones of the year, so I think just the start and how we were able to jump on them.”
Tampa Bay didn’t leave the first period unscathed, as the Sharks found the net on a rebound power-play goal midway through the frame via forward Pavol Regenda.
The Lightning kept their offensive punch rolling in the second period.
Raddysh got his second goal of the night 2:49 into the middle frame when his shot from the top of a Lightning power play deflected in off a San Jose defender.
Kucherov earned his third assist of the night on the play for the 675th of his career, tying 2020 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Jarome Iginla for 10th-most by a right wing in league history.
Bolts rookie Dominic James took advantage of a Sharks turnover to make it 5-1 only 66 seconds after the Raddysh goal, deking to his backhand in front of the net and potting the puck past San Jose goalie Alex Nedeljkovic for his third goal of the season.
The Sharks cut back into the lead midway through the second with Regenda’s second goal of the contest on a rush chance and Regenda finished his hat-trick in the third period, but Tampa Bay held on for the 7-3 win.
Kucherov scored his 20th goal of the season on another Lightning power play, ripping his shot off the far post and in from the bottom of the right circle as Guentzel screened San Jose’s goalie.
This marks Kucherov’s 11th 20-goal season for the Lightning, passing Martin St. Louis for the third-most in franchise history behind only Steven Stamkos (14) and Vincent Lecavalier (12).
But neither Kucherov or Raddysh were done with their respective big nights–Kucherov earned his fifth point of the night with the primary assist on Raddysh’s hat-trick goal with 3:07 remaining in the second period.
Kucherov fed a pass to Raddysh atop a Lightning power play, one Raddysh one-timed through Nedeljkovic to become the third defenseman in team history to earn a hat-trick and the first since Dan Boyle did so on Dec. 23, 2006 against the New York Rangers (also: Doug Crossman, Nov. 7, 1992).
Kucherov has now scored 59 points this season and sat fourth in the NHL scoring race after Saturday. He has scored a goal in five straight games and extended his point streak to seven games on Saturday.
Raddysh is up to 12 goals this season, third-most of any NHL defenseman. His 34 points tie him with Minnesota’s Quinn Hughes for sixth in defensive scoring.
“I know it was a tough start of the year for him, and not only for him. He was trying to find his game, but we were trying to find our game as a team. It’s not too long ago we’d only had one win in our first seven,” Cooper said of Raddysh postgame.
“But what the guys have done, Raddy’s a big part of it. Especially when our power play was struggling early and we moved him up top. He’s just playing with a lot of confidence, a lot of swag, and it’s paying off. And good for him. He’s had to fill a lot of different holes and situations for us over the years. You like to see good guys get rewarded, and he’s getting rewarded.”
Regenda’s hat-trick goal came on a loose puck slipped through the legs of Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Vasilevskiy earned his 16th win of the season with a 19-save performance.
Tampa Bay now faces the top team in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche, on Tuesday. Colorado leads the NHL with 30 wins and has only two regulation losses this season.
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Nikita Kucherov, TBL (Goal, 4 assists)
- Darren Raddysh, TBL (3 goals)
- Pavol Regenda, SJS (3 goals)
