Zuccarello Leads Streaking Wild to 5-4 Win over Lightning

TAMPA, Fla. — Mats Zuccarello had a goal and two assists as the Minnesota Wild won their fifth consecutive game, 5-4 over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.

Joel Eriksson Ek, Jason Zucker, Carson Soucy and Victor Rask also scored for the Wild, who have an 11-game point streak (8-0-3). Alex Stalock stopped 30 shots.

Tampa Bay, which is 1-3-1 over its last five games, got goals from Erik Cernak, Mikhail Sergachev, Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves.

Zuccarello put the Wild up 5-4 from the right circle at 4:08 of the third period, just eight seconds after Killorn’s goal.

Hedman helped the Lightning rally from a two-goal deficit to tie it 3-all on his 100th goal during a power play at 18:47 of the second. However, Rask’s rebound goal put Minnesota back ahead with 36.4 seconds left in the period.

Victor Rask Minnesota Wild
Victor Rask, Minnesota Wild (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

Nikita Kucherov assisted on Hedman’s goal and has nine assists and 13 points during a seven-game point streak.

After Cernak stopped his 21-game goal drought 1:52 into the first, Eriksson started a three-goal Wild surge at 9:33 that also saw Zucker and Soucy score during a 1:41 span.

Zucker worked a nifty give-and-go with Eric Staal, who has 74 points (33 goals, 41 assists) in 74 games against Tampa Bay.

Sergachev made it 3-2 with 4:03 to go in the first.

NOTES

Ek entered without a goal in his previous 17 games. … Hedman’s first goal came exactly 10 years ago. … Wild D Jared Spurgeon (upper body) has been placed on injured reserve and is expected to miss two weeks. C Mikko Koivu (lower body) also didn’t play. … Killorn (lower body) returned after sitting out two games.

UP NEXT

Wild: Complete a three-game road trip Saturday night at Carolina.

Lightning: Host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.

___

More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Mark Didtler, The Associated Press