TAMPA, Fla. — Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists, Steven Stamkos scored his 399th career goal and added two assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning routed the New York Rangers 9-3 on Thursday night.
Tampa Bay’s nine goals tied a team record. Five scores came on the power play, which also matched the franchise mark.
Kucherov had a goal and a pair of assists as Tampa Bay scored four times in the opening seven minutes. Stamkos got his second goal in 10 games on the power play during a four-goal second that made it 8-1.
Alex Killorn scored two power-play goals and picked up an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 shots to tie Ben Bishop for the most wins by a Tampa Bay goalie with 131.
The Lightning, who hadn’t played since Saturday when they completed back-to back wins over Buffalo in Stockholm, Sweden, also got goals from Luke Schenn, Ondrej Palat, Pat Maroon, Kevin Shattenkirk and Yanni Gourde. Victor Hedman had three assists and Gourde had two assists.
Filip Chytil scored two goals and Chris Kreider also scored for the Rangers. Alexandar Georgiev was pulled early on after allowing four goals on nine shots, before returning to start the third period. Henrik Lundqvist replaced Georgiev and gave up four goals on 19 shots.
JETS 4, PANTHERS 3: Mark Scheifele scored late in the third period to give Winnipeg a win at Sunrise, Florida.
Adam Lowry, Nikolaj Ehlers and Josh Morrissey also scored for the Jets. Patrik Laine had three assists, including his 200th career point. Laurent Brossoit stopped 33 shots.
The Jets are 5-1-1 in their past six games following a 2-5-0 stretch.
Vincent Trocheck scored twice and Aleksander Barkov also had a goal for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots.
HURRICANES 5, SABRES 4: Dougie Hamilton scored in overtime and visiting Carolina overcame a late blown lead to beat Buffalo.
Hamilton capped a frenetic, back-and-forth game that featured three goals in the final 6:25 of regulation. After Buffalo’s Johan Larsson tied it with 41 seconds left in the third period, Hamilton scored 2:32 into the extra session on a slap shot from the right circle after Ryan Dzingel drove to the net and left the puck for Hamilton.
NOTES
ISLANDERS: The New York Islanders placed left wing Andrew Ladd on waivers.
Ladd currently is on long-term injured reserve with a torn left ACL. He played 26 games last year with 11 points (three goals, eight assists) before suffering the injury on March 24.
Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello said Ladd was put on waivers for the purpose of re-assigning him to their AHL team in Bridgeport. Lamoriello said the organization did not see enough from Ladd in his five-game conditioning stint to believe he’s ready to return to the NHL, but believes he’ll clear waivers.
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