Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov netted a tiebreaking goal in a three-point night to collect another scoring title, and the Lightning inched closer to home-ice advantage in the playoffs with a 7-4 victory over the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Sunday night.
After Ryan McDonagh made it 2-all at 3:02 of the second period, Kucherov became the NHL’s top scorer by firing home his 117th point at 6:34.
The marker moved Kucherov, who later added his 36th goal and an assist, past Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, who has been out of the lineup to rest for the playoffs. The Avalanche’s season ended later Sunday night in Anaheim.
Jake Guentzel scored twice, while Conor Geekie and Emil Lilleberg added one apiece for the Lightning (46-26-8, 100 points), who are two points ahead of the third-place Florida Panthers in the Atlantic Division with each having two games left, including Tuesday night’s tilt in Tampa.
Brandon Hagel had three assists, and Anthony Cirelli and Gage Goncalves had two assists apiece. Goaltender Jonas Johansson made 21 saves.
Yanni Gourde skated in his 600th game as Tampa Bay notched points for the fifth straight time (2-0-3).
Jiri Kulich, Connor Clifton, Alex Tuch and Sam Lafferty tallied for the Sabres (35-38-7, 77 points), who lost their third straight (0-2-1) game. James Reimer had 24 saves.
Playing on the finishing end of a road back-to-back, Buffalo brought out its attack early, but Guentzel cleaned up a loose puck at 16:35 for a 1-0 lead.
However, the Lightning were reeling after the Sabres tallied twice in the final 23 seconds.
Kulich delivered his 15th tally at 19:37. Then Jack Quinn diced through the home defense with the puck and flipped it to Clifton for his first goal 15 seconds later to make it 2-1.
After goals by McDonagh and Kucherov for a 3-2 lead, Geekie, just recalled from Syracuse, perfectly timed a swat on a puck that fell from a high deflection. He beat Reimer at 14:20 for a 4-2 cushion. Lilleberg potted his first career goal at 16:45 in the four-goal frame.
In the third, Kucherov scored, but Tuch netted his 35th while on the man advantage. Kucherov then set up Guentzel’s second goal, his 40th, on the power play, and Lafferty tallied at 18:23 to finish the scoring.
