Nikita Kucherov contributed three points to Tampa Bay’s win and is already on the verge of reaching 100 points on the season, MacKinnon responded with three assists and the race is back on

Russian scoring leader Nikita Kucherov contributed a goal and two assists to his team’s victory and came very close to the 100-point mark for the season. Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon responded with 3 assists in the home loss to Toronto and the race for the scoring lead was back on.

Tampa Bay takes on the Islanders

In the New York Islanders vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (2:4), Tampa Bay bounced back from three straight defeats to pick up two important points on the Islanders ice. Tampa Bay is in 8th place in their conference with a five-point lead over the New Jersey Devils.

Nikita Kucherov, the leader of the Canadian scoring, played a big role in this game, scoring another 3 points and already with 98 points for 37 goals and 61 assists, he attacks the 100-point mark for the 4th time in his career.

He has already surpassed that mark in the regular season in 2017/18 – 100, 2018/19 – 128 and 2022/23 – 113 points. In addition, he played his 15th game of the season in which he scored at least 3 points. He is unrivalled in this respect.

Nathan MacKinnon scored again at home

In the game Colorado Avalanche vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (3:4), the home team kept the top scorer Auston Matthews at bay, but his shooting skills were replaced by forward Tyler Bertuzzi, who scored a hat trick. He was assisted by William Nylander on all goals.

Nathan MacKinnon did what he could, being on the scoresheet for all three of the home team’s goals, extending his home point streak to 28 games in which he has recorded at least a point. After 59 games played, he already has 96 points on 34 goals and 62 assists.

He is still two points behind Kucherov, and both players are now ahead of Connor McDavid in scoring. However, the star of the game was Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bertuzzi, who scored his first hat trick since October 14, 2021, when he was still wearing a Detroit Red Wings jersey.

In addition, the 29-year-old Bertuzzi became the first player in Toronto history to record a hat trick on his birthday and his first hit in a game was his 100th NHL goal. In a home jersey, MacKinnon surpassed the 60 assists in a season for the second time in his career and only two players in franchise history have done it more times. Peter Forsberg has done it five times and Joe Sakic has done it in three seasons.

The Toronto team won for the seventh consecutive season and climbed to fourth in the Eastern Conference standings. And in tonight’s game, they showed they can beat anyone, even if Matthews took one game off to chase the 70-goal mark for the season. On the other hand, the team proved that it has other snipers at its disposal.

Source: NHL