Kucherov reaches 100 points, Lightning cruise past Maple Leafs to snap 4-game skid

TORONTO -- Nikita Kucherov had four assists to reach the 100-point mark for the sixth time in his NHL career, and the Tampa Bay Lightning ended a four-game skid with a 5-2 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

Kucherov, who reached the mark for the fourth straight season, is tied with Leon Draisaitl (four from 2021-22 to 2024-25) for the third-most among players born and trained outside of North America behind only Peter Stastny (six from 1980-81 to 1985-86) and Jari Kurri (five from 1982-83 to 1986-87).

“It’s like poetry on ice watching him play,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “He sees things other guys don’t. I’ve been fortunate to have a front row seat to it for almost a decade. Just his ability to create and his vision, it’s unparalleled. There are world-class players in this League, I just had a couple of them in Milan but they play a different style than Nikita. He plays a fast game but he has the ability to slow the whole thing down to even where people who are probably novices at hockey can watch and say, ‘Oh I see what he’s doing.’ It’s almost like he’s teaching a class while doing it.”

Corey Perry, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings on Friday, scored in his return for the Lightning. He previously played for Tampa Bay from 2021-23 and had 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) in 50 games with the Kings this season.

“It’s nice to be back,” Perry said. “You can see what this team is all about and how they can play and we showed that in the first period.”

Jake Guentzel and Brandon Hagel each had a goal and an assist, and Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli each had two assists for the Lightning (39-18-4), who had lost four straight after going 20-1-1 in their prior 22 games. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves.

“You can’t win all 82, eventually you’re going to go through adversity and I’m glad it was now,” Hagel said. “You don’t want to be in it, you wish it never happens but that’s just the reality and the way hockey goes. Kind of fight through it.”

Matias Maccelli and Nicholas Robertson scored, and Anthony Stolarz made 28 saves for the Maple Leafs (27-26-11), who have lost seven consecutive games (0-5-2). They have been outscored 32-14 during the seven-game stretch.

“Just try to find our game, play a complete 60 minutes,” Stolarz said. “We have stretches where we do play really well and then there’s a couple times where we let it get away from us. We have 18 games left so we have to battle and work through this. You hate to hear the boos with a minute left.”

Maccelli put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 with his third goal in as many games at 4:50 of the first period. After William Nylander forced Oliver Bjorkstrand to turn the puck over, he skated down the right side on a 2-on-1 and fed a pass to Macelli in the slot, where he beat Vasilevskiy with a wrist shot to the glove side.

The Lightning scored four straight goals to take a three-goal lead.

Ryan McDonagh tied it 1-1 just 46 seconds later at 5:36 when his shot from the left face-off circle deflected in off the left skate of Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe.

Vasilevskiy stretched out his right pad at 6:41 to stop Steven Lorentz at the top of the goal crease to keep the game tied.

Guentzel put Tampa Bay up 2-1 at 12:30, chipping the rebound of a Kucherov shot over the glove of Stolarz from in front.

Perry made it 3-1 at 13:48. Cirelli stole the puck from Auston Matthews behind the Maple Leafs net and got it to Hagel, who passed to Perry in the left circle. Perry then went skate-to-stick to beat a diving Stolarz for the goal.

Bjorkstrand extended the lead to 4-1 with a power-play goal at 15:06, setting up in the left circle to one-time Kucherov's cross-ice pass to the short side.

“I thought we came out pretty good,” Toronto forward Max Domi said. “That was a huge goal, great play by William to Maccelli and we weren’t able to sustain that same level of play after that. That’s a good team over there and they’re going to get looks but they capitalized. We had some too but we gave up too much.”

Vasilevskiy kept it 4-1 at 7:11 of the third period when he stretched out his blocker to stop Matthew Knies alone in front of the net.

“Honestly no (it wasn’t close to the standard we expect). I love the fact we jumped out to the lead, we smelled it and went in for it. I understand we have a three-goal lead but we can’t give up that chance to Knies in the slot," Cooper said. "'Vasy' had to make two Vasilevskiy-type saves or all of a sudden it’s 4-3. The coach, forever the nitpicker but a couple plays like that, we just have to tighten that up a little bit more… But this was definitely a step forward compared to what’s gone on the last week and a half.”

Hagel scored an empty-net goal to make it 5-1 at 15:41, and Robertson finished a wraparound at the right post for the 5-2 final at 19:29.

NOTES: Kucherov required the second-fewest games by an active player to record 100 points in a single season (57). The only player that reached the mark in fewer contests is Connor McDavid (53 games in 2020-21 and 56 games in 2022-23). ... Point played his 700th NHL game. ... Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the past two game for roster management purposes. He was minus-2 and had one shot on goal in 18:49 of ice time. ... Macelli extended his point streak to five games (three goals, two assists).