Raw Charge
Summary
Nikita Kucherov keeps Nikita Kucherov’ing. The Tampa Bay Lightning forward capped off another multi-point night as he scored at the 3:23 mark of overtime to give the Lightning a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild. Kucherov’s goal was the third power play tally of the night and extended the Bolts winning streak to three games. It was also the tenth overtime goal of his career, which ties him with Marty St. Louis for third-most in franchise history. Only Brayden Point (12) and Steven Stamkos (13) have more. One more Kucherov fact, he cracked 100 points for the 2026 calendar year. He joins Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby as the only active players to hit the century mark in eight or more calendar years. Not too shabby. We’re going to let the video tell the story of tonight’s game. Your friendly neighborhood editor and recapper missed this one due to a last-minute fishing trip. We’ll have more thoughts tomorrow morning after watching the replay of the game. Based on what we’ve read about the game, the Lightning did a good job of sticking with the game plan and finding a way to tie things up after being down 2-0 and 3-1. An uncharacteristically poor performance by the Wild penalty kill helped things out as the Lightning recorded multiple power play goals (3-for-6) for the first time this season. Coach Cooper referred to it as a “character win” after the game. Unlike most of their previous games where the Lightning have started strong and faded a bit, against the Wild they were out of sorts and down two goals just three minutes into the game after Minnesota picked up goals from old friend Blake Coleman and Maxim Shabanov. Jake Guentzel cut the lead in half late in the second period with the first of his two goals, but Shabanov made it 3-1 about seven minutes into the final frame. Goals from Guentzel and Charle-Edouard D’Astous three minutes apart late in the third period set the table for Kucherov’s overtime heroics. Dennis Hildeby picked up the victory by stopping 19-of-22 while Calvin Pickard was handed the loss in his home debut stopping 30 of the 34 shots sent his way. The Bolts have no time to rest as they head to Winnipeg to take on the Jets on Sunday. Hildeby was also in net for the Lightning’s win in Tampa a little less than a month ago. #NHL Game Score Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-11-07:#GoBolts — HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) 2026-11-08T03:51:47.711Z