TAMPA, Fla. — Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists to retake the NHL lead in points and Steven Stamkos recorded his 1,100th career point with a power-play goal as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Arizona Coyotes 6-3 on Thursday night.
Brayden Point had a goal and an assist, Mitchell Chaffee scored his first career NHL goal and Darren Raddysh and Luke Glendening added scores for Tampa Bay, which won its fifth straight home game. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 17 shots.
Clayton Keller had a goal and an assist and defenseman Sean Durzi scored his eight goal of the season for Arizona. Connor Ingram, who had allowed one goal in his previous two career games against Tampa Bay, allowed six goals on 37 shots.
Tampa Bay has won seven of its last eight games, while Arizona has four wins in its last 12 games.
Kucherov, coming off a four-point game in a victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday, increased his season point total to 83 and moved ahead of Colorado’s Nate MacKinnon (82). Kucherov also reached 50 assists in fewer than 50 games for the third time in his career, one of only nine players to accomplish the feat.
Stamkos recorded his milestone point with a man-advantage goal at 12:02 of the second period. The goal was also the 206th career power-play score for Stamkos, who ranks fifth with the most power-play goals with one franchise.
Raddysh scored 24 seconds into the game, the second-fastest goal by a defenseman to start a game in franchise history. Defenseman have scored 12 goals in the last 12 games for the Lightning.
Keller tied the game at 8:40 of the first before Point put the Lightning in front for good with 33.6 seconds left in the period.
Kucherov scored his 32nd of the season at 7:36. Chaffee, in his fifth career NHL game, made it 5-1 at 15:18 of the second.
UP NEXT
Coyotes: At Carolina on Saturday.
Lightning: Host New Jersey on Saturday.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
Arizona sports
The city of Phoenix is home to five major professional sports league teams; The NFL's Arizona Cardinals, NBA's Phoenix Suns, WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks and NHL's Arizona Coyotes.
The Cardinals have made State Farm Stadium in Glendale their home turf and the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix is home to both the Suns and the Mercury. The Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers play at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale. The Coyotes play at Mullett Arena on ASU's Tempe campus.
Phoenix also has a soccer team with the USL's Phoenix Rising FC, who play at Phoenix Rising FC Stadium in Phoenix.
The Valley hosts multiple major sporting events on a yearly basis, including college football's Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl; the PGA Tour’s highest-attended event, the WM Phoenix Open; NASCAR events each spring and fall, including Championship Weekend in November; and Cactus League Spring Training for 15 Major League Baseball franchises.
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