The Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov reached another milestone in his team’s 2-1 shootout win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
Kucherov scored a goal in the second period of last night’s game against Buffalo, which made him the player to reach the 100 point plateau in the fewest amount of games since Mario Lemieux back in the 1996-97 NHL season.
The 25-year-old winger accomplished his 100th point of the season in his 62nd game of the year.
The Russia native has climbed from relative obscurity to become one of hockey’s biggest stars. Kucherov was not a highly-rated prospect, as he was selected with the 58th overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. He spent 3 years playing junior hockey in Canada before making the leap to the NHL.
Kucherov has been a big reason for Tampa Bay’s success this season. They are currently riding high on an eight-game winning streak, and they became the quickest team to win 47 games in a season in the history of the National Hockey League with their triumph on Thursday night.
The Lightning currently hold a commanding 18-point lead over the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference. They are all but guaranteed to be the conference’s top seed in the playoffs.
It’s plain to see how Kucherov’s dynamic scoring abilities have led Tampa Bay to the best regular season in their franchise’s history.
