Kucherov sparks Lightning to dramatic come-from-behind win in Stadium Series

TAMPA -- Jon Cooper has often said that Nikita Kucherov is the "straw that stirs the drink" for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and that couldn't have been more evident than in their dramatic 6-5 come-from-behind shootout win against the Boston Bruins in the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.

Kucherov had four points (one goal, three assists) in the win, none bigger than his goal at 11:50 of the third period that completed Tampa Bay's rally from a 5-1 deficit.

That goal, a one-timer from the right circle that he ripped past the glove of Jeremy Swayman, was nice in and of itself, but so was the diagonal cross-ice pass, which came from defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who was playing in his second game since returning from a lower-body injury that caused him to miss 15.

"It's nice to see 'Mac' back in the lineup," Kucherov said. "He's the guy that's been with me over the summer practicing those passes and me practicing one-timers. That's the play out of the summer training, so I know every time Mac has the puck he's looking for me. It made it such a nice play."

Before he tied it, Kucherov helped get Tampa Bay back into the game with his work during an extended 5-on-3 power play. He first set up Darren Raddysh for a one-timer from the point that made it 5-3 at 15:50 of the second period, and just 23 seconds later, Kucherov would get the secondary assist on Nick Paul's tap-in that cut it to 5-4.

As if it needed stating, Raddysh said after the game that the goal while on the power play is always the same: get the puck on Kucherov's stick and let him create magic.

"You take it shift by shift, make sure you're doing the right things, and once we were on the power play, you get the puck to 'Kuch,'" Raddysh said. "He knows what to do with it and he showed that again tonight."

Kucherov, though, was more modest, saying the power play remains a work in progress.

"I still think the power play is not where we want it," Kucherov said. "Obviously, we've got different guys playing in the units, and it's a little hard. But I think that's something we needed to do, you know, get a couple of goals and get us going a little bit. And we started to play better."

The Lightning did start to play better, and Kucherov, as he often is, was the catalyst.

Tampa Bay is now 17-1-1 in its past 19 games, and during that stretch, Kucherov leads the NHL with a whopping 44 points (15 goals, 29 assists).

"We all have good days, we all have bad days," Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. "... If you give a guy like Kucherov 10 minutes on the power play, you know you did something wrong, so that's on us."