By The Canadian Press

Kucherov has a goal and 2 assists as the Lightning beat the Maple Leafs 4-2

Feb 25, 2026 | 11:33 PM

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored to give him his ninth 30-goal season and added two assists for 701 in his career and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Wednesday night for their sixth straight victory.

Brayden Point had two goals and an assist, Gage Goncalves had a goal and two assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves for the Lightning, who are 20-1-1 in their past 22 games. Vasilevskiy is 17-0-1 since Dec. 20.

Tampa Bay won in its first game back from the Olympic break without coach Jon Cooper on the bench. Cooper, who led Canada to the silver medal at the Milan Cortina Games, will miss two games after the death of his father, Robert.

Assistant Rob Zettler stepped in for Cooper and the Lightning ended the Maple Leafs’ three-game winning streak.

The Russian-born Kucherov got his 700th assist in his 855th NHL game, becoming the second-fastest player born outside of North America to reach the mark and trailing only Peter Stastny (784 games). The milestone assist came on Goncalves’ goal at 7:58 of the second period that gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead.

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Kucherov’s 30th goal came at 2:59 of the third and made it 3-0. His nine 30-goal seasons tie him with Steven Stamkos for the most in team history.

John Tavares and Matthew Knies scored and Anthony Stolarz made 32 saves for the Maple Leafs, whose five-game winning streak against the Lightning was stopped.

CAPITALS 3, FLYERS 1

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk and Rasmus Sandin ended long goal droughts and Washington beat Philadelphia, its fifth win in their last six games.

The Capitals now have 42 goals from defensemen this season, the second most in the NHL behind Columbus.

Aliaksei Protas scored an empty-netter for Washington with 26 seconds to play when the Flyers had a six-on-four for his 20th goal of the season, and Logan Thompson made 23 saves. Protas also had an assist.

The Capitals are the only team in the NHL with four players with 20 or more goals this season: Tom Wilson, Alex Ovechkin, Jakob Chychrun and Protas.

Noah Cates scored for Philadelphia 29 seconds into the third period, his first goal in 19 games, and Dan Vladar made 26 stops as the Flyers lost for the sixth time in their last seven games to fall further out of playoff position.

After a scoreless first period, Sandin scored his third goal of the season and his first since Nov. 13 with 6:08 to play in the second. With an assist on the goal, Jakob Chychrun now has 11 points (3 goals, 8 assists) in his last eight games.

SABRES 2, DEVILS 1

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — U.S. Olympian Tage Thompson scored his 31st goal of the season and added an assist to help Buffalo beat New Jersey in the NHL’s return to action.

Thompson had three goals and an assist in six games in Milan for the champion United States.

Peyton Krebs also had a goal and an assist, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 27 saves. The Sabres have won seven of 10 to improve to 33-19-6.

Buffalo is looking to make the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons. The Sabres entered Wednesday night in the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Thompson scored in the second period, and Krebs made it 2-0 midway through the third. Timo Meier scored for New Jersey with 2:30 to play.

U.S. Olympic hero Jack Hughes was honored by the Devils before the game, and assisted on Meier’s goal. The Devils showed video of Hughes’ overtime goal in the United States’ 2-1 victory over Canada on Sunday in the gold-medal game.

STARS 4, KRAKEN 1

DALLAS (AP) — Wyatt Johnston scored his 30th and 31st goals of the season as Dallas beat Seattle.

Matt Duchene had a goal and an assist, and Sam Steel also scored for the Stars, who have won seven consecutive games for the first time since last March 22 to April 3.

Johnston scored his 19th power-play goal — the most in the NHL this season and setting a Dallas season record — for a 4-0 lead. He has three consecutive 30-goal seasons and five multigoal games this season. Hitting pipes twice in the third period kept him from a fifth career regular-season hat trick.

Dallas goalie Casey DeSmith, backup to Team USA’s Jake Oettinger, made 18 saves. DeSmith went into play sixth in the NHL with a 2.37 goals-against average.

Defenseman Ryker Evans scored a third-period goal, and Joey Daccord stopped 28 shots for the Kraken.

AVALANCHE 4, MAMMOTH 2

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — U.S. Olympian Brock Nelson scored his 30th goal of the season in Colorado’s four-goal second period and the NHL-leading Avalanche beat Utah.

Parker Kelly, Victor Olofsson and Martin Necas also scored and Scott Wedgewood made 28 saves for Colorado in the first game for both teams following the three-week break for the OIympics.

Nelson scored on a slap shot to make it 3-1 with 7:40 left in the second. With Canadian Olympian Nathan MacKinnon sitting out for the Avs, Nelson moved up to center the top line with Necas and Gabriel Landeskog.

Dylan Guenther scored twice in the second for Utah. Karel Vejmelka stopped 21 shots for the Mammoth.

Kelly opened the scoring at 3:26 of the second, splitting two defenders and snapping the puck around Vejmelka’s side. Olofsson followed with another snap shot six minutes later.

Logan Cooley returned for Utah after missing 28 games because of a lower-body injury. Before his injury, Cooley had 23 points in Utah’s first 29 games and led the Mammoth with 14 goals. He assisted on Guenther’s second goal.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS 6, KINGS 4

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Pavel Dorofeyev had two goals and Vegas spoiled Artemi Panarin’s Los Angeles debut by scoring five third-period goals to rally for a win.

Colton Sissons, Brandon Saad and Reilly Smith scored three goals in a span of 4:14 midway through the third and the short-handed Golden Knights overcame the absence of five players who participated in the gold medal game at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Sunday. Ivan Barbashev added a late empty-netter, and Adin Hill made 15 saves.

Vegas played without United States center Jack Eichel and defenseman Noah Hanifin and Canada forwards Mark Stone and Mitch Marner and defenseman Shea Theodore, all of whom are expected to be available when their five-game road trip continues against the Capitals in Washington on Friday night.

Quinton Byfield had two goals, Adrian Kempe and Brandt Clarke scored, while Panarin had two assists in his team debut, but the Kings dropped their fourth straight game.

JETS 3, CANUCKS 2, OT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Cole Perfetti scored off a rebound at 1:37 of overtime to give Winnipeg a victory over Vancouver.

Kyle Connor, returning to the Jets after helping the United States win the Olympics on Sunday, and Gabriel Vilardi also scored, Mark Scheifele had two assists.

Eric Comrie stopped 21 shots. Connor Hellebucyk, who backstopped the United States to the Olympic gold medal, is scheduled to join the team in Anaheim on Friday.

Drew O’Connor and Evander Kane scored for Vancouver, and Nikita Tolopilo made 25 saves.

Vancouver took a 2-1 lead just 38 seconds into the second period when Elias Pettersson won a draw in the Jets’ end and Kane blasted a one-timer past Comrie.

Vilardi tied the it with less than two minutes left in second. Parked in the crease, he banged home a pass from Scheifele.

DUCKS 6, OILERS 5

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Joel Quenneville became the second coach in NHL history to win 1,000 games with Anaheim’s comeback victory over Edmonton.

Quenneville joined Scotty Bowman in an exclusive hockey club with a milestone win in the Ducks’ first game back from the Olympic break.

Cutter Gauthier scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:14 to play for the Ducks, who erased a pair of two-goal deficits. Leo Carlsson had a goal and two assists in his first appearance since Jan. 10 for the Ducks, who have won six straight home games and 10 of 12 overall to leapfrog the Oilers into second place in the Pacific Division.

Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard scored late in the second period to put the Oilers ahead, but Carlsson and Olen Zellweger scored early in the third to even it again for Anaheim.

Rookie Matt Savoie then converted a rebound late in a power play for his 10th career goal, but Beckett Sennecke answered 46 seconds later with a slick wrist shot for his 19th goal — tops among NHL rookies.

Gauthier then converted a rebound of Carlsson’s shot, setting off a wild celebration inside a sold-out Honda Center.

Jack Roslovic and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton. Connor McDavid had two assists, giving the Olympic silver medalist an NHL-best 98 points in 59 games.

Ian Moore and Alex Killorn scored for the Ducks, and Lukas Dostal made 22 saves.

The Associated Press