Kucherov, Stamkos lead red-hot Lightning past Kings
LOS ANGELES -- Four Lightning players, including the red-hot Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos, had multi-point games, and Peter Budaj made 22 saves as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Los Angeles Kings 5-2 on Thursday night.
Tampa Bay (13-2-2) saw 10 players record points and five score. Stamkos had a goal and an assist, giving him an NHL-high 28 points, while Kucherov recorded three points, including his league-leading 16th goal.
Los Angeles (11-3-2) allowed one power-play goal on seven minor penalties. The Kings led the league on the penalty kill coming into the game.
The Lightning opened the scoring at 9:27 of the first period when Stamkos snaked a pass to Kucherov at center from deep in the Tampa Bay zone. Approaching the net, Kucherov slowed, deked left to right, then slid the puck past Jonathan Quick along the ice.
Budaj earlier stonewalled Anze Kopitar with a blocker save.
Tampa Bay went up 2-0 when Alex Killorn scored his second of the season at 10:01 of the first period. Tyler Johnson put a cross-ice pass to Dan Girardi, who spotted Killorn in the low slot. Killorn redirected the puck from the top of the crease.
The Lightning jumped to a 3-0 lead at 10:35, when Victor Hedman fired a rising wrist shot for his second goal. The Kings challenged the goal as offside and received a delay-of-game penalty when the challenge was denied.
Just 34 seconds later, Tampa Bay capitalized on the power play to make it 4-0 on Stamkos' eighth goal. Stamkos scored from one knee on his patented one-timer after a backhand pass across the slot by Killorn.
Los Angeles broke the shutout at 17:31 of the second period when Tyler Toffoli netted his eighth of the season. He tried a shot that came back to him off Anton Stralman's stick in the slot and persisted to whack it home on the long side under Budaj's catching glove.
The Kings appeared to make it 4-2 at 19:13 as Kopitar kicked the puck from skate to stick and fired a shot between the legs of Dustin Brown as he crowded Budaj. The score was overturned because of goaltender interference.
Los Angeles made it 4-2 at 8:39 of the third period when Oscar Fantenberg collected his first career goal. Brown executed a spin move in the right corner, then carried the puck around the net and fed it to the slot. It skipped off Brooks Laich's skate to Fantenberg, who fired a wrist shot into the top of the net.
Vladislav Namestnikov scored his eighth goal of the season at 12:59 of the third period. Quick was in full splits as the puck went over him and bounced out. A brief review confirmed the goal.
Quick finished with 38 saves.
NOTES: Los Angeles scratched D Christian Folin and LW Adrian Kempe, who was ill. ... Tampa Bay scratched C Cedric Paquette, RW Ryan Callahan and D Andrej Sustr. ... The Lightning have a club-record 28 points through 17 games.