In Tampa Monday night, the Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov scored a natural hat trick with three straight power play goals to send the Bolts past the Ottawa Senators, 5-1.
The loss was a big one for the Sens who are trying to catch the Montreal Canadiens for the top spot in the Atlantic Division. The Habs defeated the New Jersey Devils, 4-3, in overtime Monday night.
Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up the win over Senators Monday – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“When [Kucherov] has that shooter’s mentality with the gift that he has to put the puck in the back of the net, this is what happens,” Bolts head coach Jon Cooper said.
Brayden Point and Braydon Coburn added goals for the Lighting and Tampa Bay improved to 28-25-8.
“Right now for us, it’s like the playoffs,” Kucherov said. “It’s huge. We need these points.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 39 saves for the win as the new number one goalie in Tampa Bay.
Kyle Turris was the lone goal scorer for the Senators as Ottawa dropped to 33-22-6.
“We had chances, but our power play has been terrible the last four or five games,” Ottawa’s Mark Stone said. “It hasn’t created us any momentum, it hasn’t gotten us very much. Nice to get one on the 5-on-3, but you’re supposed to score on those.”
WATCH: All Senators vs. Lightning highlights
Mike Condon made 29 saves in the loss.
“The guys came out, they battled … and [Sunday, a 2-1 win against the Florida Panthers], they gave everything they got. Everything. And we came out strong, it could have been two or three to nothing and their goaltender was outstanding, made the key saves and we needed those goals,” Ottawa head coach Guy Boucher said after the game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.