The Backcheck: Kucherov hits 1,000 as Lightning sweep home back-to-back

Have a weekend, Tampa Bay.

The Tampa Bay Lightning saw four different players hit major milestones—among them career point 1,000 for Nikita Kucherov—and won their first back-to-back games of the 2025-26 season to get back on track.

The Lightning beat Anaheim 4-3 on Saturday and followed it up with a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday. Tampa Bay is now 3-4-2 this season and snapped a four-game losing streak with the back-to-back wins.

“It's nice to get a little bit of mojo at the start of the year. It's something new for everyone, I'm sure, probably from Coach Coop right down the lineup. No one's ever started the way we probably started, but it's a process,” Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said after the back-to-back. “We're going to continue to build. And like I said, we're going to look back at this, and this is what's going to make our team better and grow and be the team we are by game 82.”

Tampa Bay goes back on the road for one game, heading to play the Nashville Predators at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday before they return to Tampa for a matchup with the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Kucherov hits 1,000 as Lightning get first home win Saturday

Nikita Kucherov’s 1,000th career NHL point cleared the Tampa Bay Lightning bench in the second period of Saturday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks, but it was his 1,001st career point later in the game that made the bigger difference for Tampa Bay.

After a pair of Anaheim third-period goals erased a 3-1 Lightning lead at Benchmark International Arena, Kucherov’s perfect saucer pass to Anthony Cirelli turned into a power-play goal with 3:15 remaining and a 4-3 win to halt Tampa Bay’s four-game losing skid.

The Lightning improved to 2-4-2 on the same night that Kucherov hit 1,000 NHL points, captain Victor Hedman recorded his 800th NHL point and Hagel notched career point 300.

“I think we responded well,” Cirelli said postgame. “They tied the game there, and I thought we just went back to work. Obviously those are unbelievable milestones for two special people and special players, so we needed to come up with the win tonight to make it a little bit more special. It was nice getting two points.”

Tampa Bay was the first team to score on Saturday when Jake Guentzel deposited his own rebound 9:10 into the game for a 1-0 lead. After the Ducks had tied the game early in the second period, the Lightning got the lead back on a pair of milestone markers.

Kucherov got his 1,000th point on Guentzel’s second goal of the night. Kucherov fed the puck to Brayden Point, whose pass from the right corner hit Guentzel’s skates near the net and beat Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal to make it 2-1 with 7:31 remaining in the middle frame.

Kucherov is the 101st player in NHL history and second in franchise history (Steven Stamkos) to the mark. He scored his 1,000th point in his 809th game, requiring the 17th-fewest games in NHL history and third-fewest among active players behind Connor McDavid (659 games) and Sidney Crosby (757).

“It was a great feeling and something I never thought I would reach,” Kucherov said postgame, “and I’m really honored and fortunate to have great teammates along the way. Without them I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have done that, and also without the fan support. They’ve been a huge part of it. I’m just really blessed.”

Cirelli extended the Lightning lead a few minutes later, scoring a netfront goal with assists from Hagel and Hedman for their 300th and 800th career NHL points, respectively.

“It's super special,” Hedman said of becoming the 20th defenseman in NHL history to reach 800 career points. “Drafted in ‘09, never in my wildest dreams would I think of getting this high up. So it's a great feeling.”’

Anaheim scored twice in 1 minute, 59 seconds of the third period to tie the game, but Cirelli’s team-leading fifth goal of the season came as the winner with 3:15 left in the game to cap a milestone night with a 4-3 win.

With Tampa Bay on the power play, Hedman got the puck to Kucherov in the left corner. Kucherov then found Cirelli in the high slot, where a one-timed shot beat Dostal blocker-side to win the game. Tampa Bay never let Anaheim pull its goalie after earning puck possession with pressure in the game’s final minutes.

The win felt like a step forward in the Lightning locker room.

“Probably a week ago, we were finding a way to lose that game 4-3, and a week later, we're winning that game 4-3. It was tough to watch us give up that two-goal lead, but after we did I kind of liked our game,” Cooper said. “Probably the best part of our game we had was after they tied it, and especially after we took the lead, we had the puck the rest of the time. We did a lot of winning hockey things.”

Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson finished with 37 saves on 40 Anaheim shots and is now 2-1-0 on the season, while rookie defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous made his NHL debut at 27 years old.

Cirelli led the Lightning on offense with two goals and an assist. Kucherov joined Hedman, Guentzel and Hagel with two points apiece.

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

1. Nikita Kucherov, TBL (2 assists)
2. Anthony Cirelli, TBL (2 goals, assist)
3. Jonas Johansson, TBL (37 saves)

Lightning utilize overtime to defeat Vegas

With just over six minutes remaining in regulation of Sunday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights—Tampa Bay’s second in as many nights—it appeared as though the Lightning had taken the lead at an opportune time.

Kucherov appeared to score on a beautiful setup from Point with 6:40 remaining in regulation for the 2-1 lead, but the goal was negated due to being offside after Vegas utilized a coach’s challenge.

Tampa Bay never wavered, and it was Kucherov who put the puck in the Vegas net once again for the win, burying the game-winner 32 seconds into overtime for a 2-1 win.

The Lightning outshot Vegas 28-19, including 24-8 through the first two periods of hockey.

"I think tonight was our best game of the year, for sure our most complete effort,” Point said postgame. "Everyone was engaged, everyone did their job. I think tonight, if we can carry tonight forward, it'd be really good.”

One night after registering NHL point No. 300, Hagel’s first goal of the season got Tampa Bay going on Sunday. The Bolts winger roofed the puck into the top corner of the net 4:53 into the game on a rebound chance following Hedman’s point shot.

Hagel also tied for the team lead with five shots on goal in Sunday’s win, one he said has helped level up the mindset of the Lightning locker room following a 1-4-2 start that tied for the fewest standings points in team history through the first seven games of a season.

“It's nice to get a little bit of mojo at the start of the year. It's something new for everyone, I'm sure, probably from Coach Coop right down the lineup, no one's ever started the way we started, but it's a process,” Hagel said. “And we're going to continue to build. And like I said, we're going to look back at this, and this is what's going to make our team better and grow and be the team we are by game 82.”

Vegas tied the game late in the first period on a rush opportunity, their goal coming on forward William Karlsson’s shot inside the right goalpost with 1:35 remaining.

That goal wound up being the only blemish against Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who earned his first win of the season by stopping 18 of 19 shots on goal.

Vasilevskiy was busiest in the third period, keeping the Golden Knights off the scoreboard despite the visitors outshooting the Lightning 11-3 thanks to a pair of power-play chances.

The Lightning appeared to make it 2-1 on a Kucherov goal with just under seven minutes remaining in regulation, but the play was negated due to being offside on the entry to the offensive zone.

Then in overtime, Hagel set up Kucherov for the game-winner. Hagel forced a Vegas turnover in the Lightning defensive zone to start a 2-on-1 with Kucherov, feeding the Russian forward a pass at the bottom of the left circle for the game-winning goal through Vegas goalie Carl Lindbom 32 seconds into the extra frame.

Tampa Bay was tested in both games of their weekend back-to-back, and now the team hopes to continue building on those wins this week.

“There was multiple tests tonight,” Cooper said. “And I think the guys learned a lot about themselves and how to deal with tough times when they come, and they come in all different ways…the boys faced some real challenges tonight, and they came through…there was a lot of players out there that took major steps forward."

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

1. Brandon Hagel, TBL (Goal, assist)
2. Nikita Kucherov, TBL (Overtime goal)
3. Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (18 saves, win)