Kucherov danced his way to the right faceoff dot, pulling a Detroit defender toward him before cutting back to the right center hashmark. Kucherov shelved his shot into the top right corner of the Detroit net for his 21 st goal of the season.

Notches apple Saturday

While the Tampa Bay Lightning continue to move up the Eastern Conference standings, their captain Victor Hedman keeps checking off milestones. The Lightning and their hulking defenseman will finish a two-game homestand Saturday night against the sizzling Detroit Red Wings in the opener of four matchups between the Atlantic Division foes.

Anaheim opened the scoring 6:03 into the game on a redirection by forward Troy Terry, but the Lightning tied the score eight minutes later on the power play. Hedman got the puck at the left point and fed forward Brandon Hagel in the right corner, where the latter passed the puck to Anthony Cirelli at the back post for a tap-in and a tie game.

Here are three reasons to like the Lightning’s new-look power play. Thursday’s moves were transformative, because the personnel and positional changes made it difficult to tell which was the top unit and which was the second. Point men Victor Hedman and Darren Raddysh switched units, with Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel matched with Raddysh.

The Detroit Red Wings picked up a statement win in their first game of the quick Florida trip. Now, they will try and complete the sweep on Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Watch the Detroit Red Wings on FuboTV (7-day free trial) The Red Wings were served a slice of humble pie at the end of their homestand when they fell to the dismal San Jose Sharks.

The Tampa Bay Lightning edged the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 Thursday evening when Bolts forward Jake Guentzel scored the lone goal in sudden death. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy turned away shots by Anaheim forward Mason McTavish and Ducks leading scorer Troy Terry in the shootout to allow Tampa Bay to win its 24th game of the season,

Robby Fabbri, Troy Terry and Leo Carlsson score for the Ducks, who fall to 1-3-1 on their six-game trip when Guentzel scores the only goal for either team in the shootout to hand them a 4-3 defeat.

The Lightning were a tired team Thursday night against the Ducks. Yes, they were back home. But after returning from Boston Wednesday following a three-game, four-day road trip — part of a 16-game gauntlet (10 on the road) in January — they were a weary group.

The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Anaheim Ducks in a shootout as Victor Hedman sets a Lightning franchise record.

A late breakaway goal from Nikita Kucherov stood as the game-winner as the Lightning beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday. The win closed a weekend back-to-back, one in which the Lightning left with three standings points after Saturday’s overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils.