Kucherov has four points, Lightning defeat Stars for fourth win in row

TAMPA -- Nikita Kucherov became the fastest player to reach 90 points in Tampa Bay Lightning history during a 6-0 win against the Dallas Stars on Thursday at Amalie Arena.

Kucherov had a goal and three assists, and also became the first NHL player to reach 90 points in his team's first 58 games since Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin did it in 2009-10. He leads the NHL with 92 points (26 goals, 66 assists).
Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis each reached 90 points in the Lightning's 69th game of the 2006-07 season.
"We won today, that's good," Kucherov said. "It's not about my game. It's a team game and everybody is feeling good about themselves."
WATCH: [All Stars vs. Lightning highlights]
Steven Stamkos had two goals and an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves for his fifth shutout of the season for the Lightning (43-11-4), who have won four straight games and are 6-0-2 in their past eight. Vasilevskiy got his 17th NHL shutout, tying him with current Stars goalie Ben Bishop for the Lightning record.
Tampa Bay scored on three consecutive shots in the first period to make it 4-0.

"You jump out to a 4-0 lead in the first period, we didn't think it was a 4-0 game," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "The pucks were going in the net for us and we capitalized on our opportunities."
Anton Khudobin made 16 saves on 21 shots, and Landon Bow made four saves on five shots for the Stars (29-23-5), who have lost three of four games but are 6-2-1 over their past nine.
"Every time we made a mistake or a bounce went their way they made us pay," Dallas coach Jim Montgomery said. "You've got to tip your hat, that's a really good hockey team. Anytime we did break through they've got a brick wall back there."

Stamkos gave the Lightning a 1-0 with a power-play goal at 7:19 of the first period, a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Ondrej Palat.
Mikhail Sergachev made it 2-0 at 12:39.
"I tried a new stick this morning," Sergachev said. "And I liked it. Obviously [scoring the goal] felt great."
Tyler Johnson made it 3-0 with his 20th goal of the season 14 seconds later at 12:53. Johnson has scored at least 20 goals in four of his seven NHL seasons.
"We got done by too many too early," Stars center Jason Spezza said. "They score a lot of goals and it doesn't take much for them to score, as you saw."

Kucherov made it 4-0 at 14:40 on a one-timer from the high slot off a pass from Alex Killorn. He has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past three games.
Bow replaced Khudobin after Kucherov's goal and finished the period. Khudobin returned for the second period, with Bow playing the third.
Killorn made it 5-0 at 8:23 of the second when his shot from the left face-off circle went in off Khudobin's right pad.
Stamkos scored on the power play at 16:28 for the 6-0 final.
"It's a ton of fun to come to the rink every day when things are going as well as they have this year," Stamkos said. "We're a group that … our tendency is to have some fun, relax and enjoy yourself. And when you're doing that you're usually playing some good hockey and playing with confidence."

The Lightning have scored at least six goals 14 times this season.
"We knew what we had to do before the game, we had a game plan but we didn't follow it," Stars defenseman Roman Polak said. "We haven't had a game like that in a long time and we need to learn from it."

They said it

"I liked our effort, I didn't love our puck management, but we'll get better from this. We're going to learn from this. When you get your rear end handed to you from the best team in the League you learn, you get better and we will get better from this." -- Stars coach Jim Montgomery
"It's kind of tough. You're up 4-0 but you've got to continue to play solid and we did that. We had a good penalty kill (2-for-2) and just did the right things. Sometimes it's kind of boring, but when you get out to a big lead you want to play that boring game." -- Lightning captain Steven Stamkos

Need to know

Stars defenseman John Klingberg (undisclosed) left the game at 6:15 of the third after blocking a shot. Montgomery did not provide an update. … Dallas forward Blake Comeau (upper body) did not play. Montgomery said he is probable for Saturday. … Lightning forward Brayden Point had two assists and has eight points (two goals, six assists) during a four-game point streak. … Stamkos has eight points (four goals, four assists) during a four-game point streak. … Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak had four shots and five hits in 19:21 of ice time. … Kucherov also had 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in a three-game span from Dec. 20-27.

What's next

Stars: At the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-CR, FS-SW, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, CITY, SNE, TVAS, SUN, NHL.TV)