Gosh, that Nikita Kucherov is such a slacker.
The underrated, rising star saw his historic, season-opening seven-game goal streak end with eight in seven games. This leaves him just one game short of tying Wayne Gretzky.
It’s fitting, though, that Kucherov made a little history even as his historic run ended. He earned two primary assists on the first two goals of Mikhail Sergachev’s NHL career, factoring into the Tampa Bay Lightning’s surprisingly low-scoring 2-0 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
(C’mon, you pictured some fireworks there too, didn’t you?)
Here’s the first-ever goal for Sergachev, who matched trade mate Jonathan Drouin’s two goals with tonight’s outburst.
And here’s the second:
Yeah, you can’t give Sergachev that kind of space and time; then again, maybe the Blue Jackets were a little preoccupied with stopping Kucherov and his red-hot partner-in-crime, Steven Stamkos?
Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov each extended their season-opening point streaks to eight games, three shy of the @TBLightning record. pic.twitter.com/XHj9puO2Rm
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 20, 2017
The real star of tonight’s game/reason why it was so low-scoring was probably Andrei Vasilevskiy. Another key Russian for the Lightning, Vasilevskiy stopped all 43 shots for an impressive shutout. This marks his first of the season and only the fifth of what’s been a promising young career.
#CBJ owned the shot clock 33-8 over the final two periods. Fifth shutout of Vasilevskiy’s career, most saves (43) he’s had in a shutout.
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) October 20, 2017
After falling just short against the New Jersey Devils via a shootout, the Bolts improve to 6-1-1 while winning another early temperature check against Columbus, who are still off to a strong start at 5-2-0.
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