Tuesday, March 5, 2019 07:30 PM (ET)

Lightning down Jets to keep home streak alive

Field Level Media
Mar 5, 2019

Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos and Adam Erne each had a goal and an assist, Nikita Kucherov tied the team record for points in a season, and the Lightning beat the visiting Winnipeg Jets 5-2 to boost their home winning streak to eight games on Tuesday.

Mathieu Joseph posted two assists, and Yanni Gourde, Cedric Paquette and Brayden Point found the net for the Lightning, who won for the 12th time in their past 13 games.

Kucherov's two assists pushed him to 108, tying the franchise mark for a season with Vincent Lecavalier (2006-07). Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves to win his 10th straight start.

Jacob Trouba recorded a goal and an assist, and Blake Wheeler also scored for Winnipeg, which has lost six of its last nine (3-5-1). Connor Hellebuyck allowed four goals on 36 shots but missed 3:16 of ice time after an injury in the second period. Laurent Brossoit stopped one of two shots in brief relief.

Ondrej Palat zipped a pass through the neutral zone early on, and Gourde skated in on a breakaway and snapped his 18th goal past Hellebuyck at 1:34 on the Lightning's first shot on goal.

After a failed two-on-one short-handed break by Tampa Bay, Patrik Laine led a rush and backhanded a pass to Wheeler, who scored at 6:31 for a power-play goal to tie it 1-1.

Wheeler collected his fifth straight goal scored by the club. The Minnesota native scored the final four goals Sunday in the Jets' 5-2 win at Columbus, and he has 18 this season.

Vasilevskiy and Hellebuyck, who entered the game with 58 combined wins, were strong early in the second period, but Tampa Bay grabbed a 2-1 edge when Joseph led a speedy two-on-one rush that Erne finished with his seventh goal at 8:58.

Kucherov rifled a shot at 14:11 that struck Hellebuyck in the mask, cutting the goalie over the left eye. He left the ice and was replaced by Brossoit, and Stamkos' one-timer on the power play from the left circle on the first shot on the backup made it 3-1.

Paquette scored his 10th goal, Point added his NHL-best 19th power-play tally and Trouba netted a fluke power-play goal off a quirky bounce off the stanchion in the third period.

--Field Level Media

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