SUNRISE, Fla. — It didn’t take long for Nikita Kucherov to shake the rust off.
Kucherov, playing in his first game in nearly eight months since hoisting the Stanley Cup last September in Edmonton, scored two power-play goals in the second period and assisted on another in the third in the Lightning’s first-round playoff opener against the Florida Panthers.
Tampa Bay escaped with a 5-4 comeback victory on Brayden Point’s winner with 1:14 left in the game. It was Point’s second goal of the period.
Point took a stretch pass from defenseman Ryan McDonagh through the neutral zone and beat Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky on a breakaway goal through the five hole.
There were a lot of question marks going into Game 1. Lightning coach Jon Cooper quelled expectations. Until Kucherov had some shifts under his belt, who knew how he’d adapt to jumping into the intensity of the postseason right away?
Thirty-five minutes into the game, all those questions were answered. Kucherov had already danced around the right circle with two goal celebrations.
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And with the Lightning on the ropes trailing by a goal late in the third, Kucherov bluffed a shot from the right circle, then slid the puck to Point in the slot for the tying goal with seven minutes to play.
Panthers coach Joel Quenneville was certainly aware of the impact Kucherov and captain Steven Stamkos could make in their return. He compared it to playing a game of Texas Hold ‘Em and right off the bat, your opponent is dealt a pair of aces.
And the Panthers certainly tried to account for Kucherov, trying to plant him into the boards whenever they could, getting in front of him to limit his damage. But finding space and a path to the net is what Kucherov does best, and Florida was ill-equipped in their preparation.
The Lightning trailed 2-1 following a frantically-paced and physical first period that had included lots of hard checking, pushing and shoving and had just 11:37 of 5-on-5 play.
Kucherov tied the score 4:58 into the second period. Off the faceoff in the right circle of the Panthers’ zone, Florida defenseman Gustav Forsling snapped in half. Kucherov calmly found space in the right circle as the puck moved around, cleared away the remnants of Forsling’s stick, took a feed from Victor Hedman and rifled a one-timer past Bobrovsky.
Kucherov’s second goal came with 5:09 left in the second period, when Point chased the puck into the corner and took two Panthers with him, got it out to Hedman who skated across the front of the crease drawing attention before passing off to Kucherov below the right dot.
