Kucherov returns, leads Lightning
Nikita Kucherov had a pair of nifty assists in his return from a lengthy injury during Tampa Bay’s three-goal third period in the Lightning’s 4-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.
Corey Perry, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn scored to help Tampa Bay (238-5, 51 points) become the first NHL team to reach 50 points for the fourth time in the past five seasons. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves, losing his shutout bid when Dillon Dube scored with 4:06 left.
Kucherov, who missed 32 games with an undisclosed lower-body injury that required surgery, sent a pass through the slot from the low right circle to set up Point’s goal that put the Lightning up 2-0 2:52 into third. The right wing then made a spin move behind the net to assist on Palat’s low slot goal at 10:10.
Killorn made it 4-0 just 14 seconds after Palat’s goal.
Flames backup goalie Dan Vladar stopped 29 shots in his first game since Dec. 7. Johnny Gaudreau had his 11-game road points streak (nine goals, 18 points) end.
Penguins 6, Flyers 2: Visiting Pittsburgh won 10 straight games for the sixth time in franchise history, getting two goals each from Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel to beat depleted Philadelphia.
Wild 3, Bruins 2: Kirill Kaprizov scored in his fourth straight game, Matt Boldy got a goal in his NHL debut and visiting Minnesota snapped a five-game skid.
Devils 3, Blue Jackets 1: Jesper
Bratt scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, MacKenzie Blackwood made 31 saves and host New Jersey beat Columbus for its fourth win in five games.
Rask nears return: Goalie Tuukka Rask, the Bruins’ career leader with 306 wins, signed a minor-league deal with the team and will report to Providence of the American Hockey League.
Rask, 34, had been recovering from hip surgery. He said that he expects to play two games in Providence before working out a contract to return to the Bruins.
“We have a plan in place. It shouldn’t be an issue,” Rask said. “I plan on playing tomorrow here and then see about Sunday and we’ll move forward next week I should be with the big guys.” Briefly: Forward Vladimir Tarasenko and defensemen Scott Perunovich and Jake Walman were placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols by the Blues. ... The list of players entering COVID-19 protocols also includes the Jets’ Dylan DeMelo and Jansen Harkins and the Devils’ Andreas Johnsson. ... The Senators’ Chris Tierney and Thomas Chabot exited the COVID-19 protocols. ... Kraken forward Jaden Schwartz, who is second on the team with 20 points, will have hand surgery that is expected to sideline him for at least four weeks, the team said on Twitter.