We are a pretty proud team,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We lost three straight at home which rarely happens to us. Pretty determined group to try and make the playoffs here and they showed it.”
Anders Lee and Brock Nelson scored for the Islanders, who lost for the fifth time in six games. Defenseman Noah Dobson added two assists. Ilya Sorokin finished with 18 saves.
New York is 4-5-3 since Patrick Roy took over behind the bench, replacing coach Lane Lambert on Jan. 20.
Kucherov extended the Lightning lead to two goals, scoring his team-best 37th at 5:34 of the opening period.
We got to be smart, we got to work hard and we got to do it together,” Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri said. “It can’t just be one line or four, five guys, we all got to pull on the rope in the same direction.”
Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists and the Tampa Bay Lightning snapped a three-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday.
Kucherov leads the NHL with 98 points (37 goals and 61 assists).
Nicholas Paul, Brayden Point and Luke Glendening also scored for the Lightning. Victor Hedman had two assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves as Tampa Bay opened a three-game trip in the Northeast that includes stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia.
