Nikita Kucherov scored his fourth goal of the season, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning win 4-1 against the Vancouver Canucks in their home opener, which was delayed due to a hurricane, on Tuesday night.
Kucherov, who had a hat trick in the Lightning’s last game, opened the scoring against the Canucks with a goal set up by Darren Raddysh just 3:55 into the match.
The Lightning were supposed to start their home season on Saturday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, but that game was postponed because of Hurricane Milton’s impact.
Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, and Brandon Hagel each scored a goal and had an assist in the victory, while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves in goal.
Conor Garland scored the only goal for Vancouver on a power play in the third period, and Arturs Silovs stopped 24 shots for the Canucks.
Vancouver is 0-1-2 after winning 50 games last season. They have scored eight goals so far, with five of those coming in the first period across three games.
Many players and staff, including coach Jon Cooper, have been staying in hotels due to ongoing power outages after spending most of last week in Raleigh, North Carolina, because of Hurricane Milton. However, this situation has not affected their performance in games.
After Tampa Bay missed a chance to go up 3-0 during a late second-period power play, Vasilevskiy made key saves against Tyler Myers and Brock Boeser. Garland also hit the post during that time.
