Kucherov gets 100th assist, Lightning defeat Maple Leafs

TAMPA -- Nikita Kucherov became the fifth player in NHL history to get at least 100 assists in a season, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-4 at Amalie Arena on Wednesday.

Kucherov's 100th assist came with the Lightning on the power play in the second period. He faked a shot from the right circle and passed the puck to Brayden Point, who scored on a wrist shot from the slot at 17:05 to give the Lightning a 4-1 lead.

"It's a special moment,” Kucherov said. “Thanks to my teammates and coaching staff for putting me in position to have success. I'm fortunate to play with great players. It's a good moment. [Point] has been putting in a lot of goals from that spot. I couldn't be happier to assist on that goal."

He joins Wayne Gretzky (11 times), Mario Lemieux (1988-89), Bobby Orr (1970-71) and Connor McDavid (2023-24) as players to have reached the milestone. McDavid hit the mark for the Edmonton Oilers on Monday in a 9-2 win against the San Jose Sharks. The only other time two players reached 100 assists in the same season was 1988-89 when Gretzky and Lemieux each had 114.

"You don't know how many kicks in the can you've ever going to get at that," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "There's one player in the history of this game that's pretty much hogged them all with 11, but that's how hard it is. It's just a remarkable achievement and just to think that in the 100-plus years this league has been around that two players did it in the same year. That's pretty cool."

Brandon Hagel and Anthony Duclair scored for the Lightning (45-29-8), who will play the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs starting Sunday. Matt Tomkins made 34 saves.

Auston Matthews had 12 shots on goal but failed to score his 70th goal of the season for the Maple Leafs (46-26-10), who will play the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference First Round starting Saturday. Martin Jones made 26 saves.

"It just wasn’t meant to be," Matthews said. "It was nice to have for my teammates, for the organization, and the fans. It definitely means a lot. But this is where we want to have our success, in the postseason. We want to make sure that we’re elevating our game, and for myself, individually. We want to turn the page now."

Matthews' best chance came 28 seconds into the second period when he had a look at a wide-open net from the doorstep and his shot was blocked by the skate of Lightning defenseman Emil Lilleberg. He also had a shot ring off the crossbar at 10:51 of the second.

"He’s played so tremendously well," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. "He’s playing well, feeling well. It’s been fun to watch. The way he’s played these last two games, give him those types of chances and those types of shots, and he could have had 75. It wasn’t meant to be, and that’s OK -- 69 is an unbelievable season. There are more great things to come for Auston."

Nicholas Paul gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 3:58 of the first period when he scored from the doorstep off a backdoor pass by Duclair.

Kucherov made it 2-0 at 6:14 when he poked the puck past Jones from close range on a follow-up of his initial shot. He leads the NHL with 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists).

"He's got an amazing shot," Point said. "Forty-four goals this year for himself to go along with 100 assists. It's remarkable.”

Ryan Reaves sent a one-timer past Tomkins at 13:18 to cut it to 2-1.

Duclair extended Tampa Bay's lead to 3-1 at 6:37 of the second period when he punched in a rebound off a shot from Paul.

Hagel pushed the Lightning lead to 5-1 with a breakaway goal at 17:57.

Tanner Jeannot scored for the Lightning to make it 6-1 at 11:27 of the third period.

TJ Brodie scored his first goal of the season to make it 6-2 at 14:02. Pontus Holmberg cut it to 6-3 at 16:20.

"We have our sights on the playoffs," Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bertuzzi said. "But we’ve still got to perform better than we did tonight.”

John Tavares scored at 19:23 with the Maple Leafs using an extra attacker for the 6-4 final.

"We didn't want to go into this game and give up four goals, that was not what we wanted to do," Cooper said. "We wanted to win this game and do it the right way. But if we were going to give up four, it would've been cool if ‘34’ had gotten one of them. There's no doubt.

"We talked about the exploits of Nikita Kucherov, and Auston Matthews is right up there with him. He's a pure goal-scorer. He's going to [finish with] 69, but I think 70 is in his future and beyond."

NOTES: Matthews' 69 goals are tied for 15th all time (Lemieux and Mike Bossy). The last players to hit 70 goals in a season were Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny, who both did it in 1992-93. ... Kucherov's 144 points in a season are 23rd all time. ... Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman (illness) was a late scratch. ... Point reached 90 points (46 goals, 44 assists) for the second straight season and third time in his NHL career.