Lightning shut down Maple Leafs in 1st game back after Olympic break

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Feb 25, 2026

Published in Hockey

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TAMPA, Fla. — Things didn’t come easily for the Lightning early on in their first game in nearly three weeks.

In Wednesday’s return to play against the division rival Maple Leafs, the Lightning saw two first-period goals negated following Toronto coach’s challenges. It was ruled that Tampa Bay was offside entering the offensive zone before both scores.

But the Lightning didn’t let that affect them and scored two goals over a 51-second stretch during a 19-shot second period, then locked down the Leafs for a 4-2 win at Benchmark International Arena.

Against a Toronto team that was closer (two points) to last place in the Atlantic than the East’s final playoff spot (six points), the Lightning won their sixth straight game and ran their record to 20-1-1 over their last 22 games and took an eight-point lead over Detroit, Montreal and Buffalo for first in the division.

Brayden Point scored two goals in his first game back after missing the previous 11 with a lower-body injury. Nikita Kucherov, arguably the hottest player in hockey entering the break, scored his 30th goal of the season and became the ninth-fastest player in league history to reach 700 career assists, doing so in his 855th NHL game.

Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves to win his ninth straight game. Vasilevskiy, who is 17-0-1 in his last 18, made a remarkable save on Toronto’s William Nylander, extending his right pad to stop a breakaway wrist shot.

All eight players who participated in the Olympics in Milan, Italy, were in the lineup, meshed with players who took part in five practices over the past week after nearly two weeks off.

Point, one of three players returning from injury, opened the scoring 7:07 into the second period. Pontus Holmberg sent a cross-ice pass to Charle-Edouard D’Astous at the left dot, and D’Astous threaded a pass across to Point trailing between the hashes. Point beat Toronto goaltender Anthony Stolarz with a tight-angled snap shot inside the right post.

On the next shift, Gage Goncalves started a rush, pushing the puck to Kucherov as he entered the neutral zone. Goncalves got the puck back at the blue line before parting two Leafs defenders and beating Stolarz for a 2-0 lead. Kucherov’s primary assist on the play made him the 10th active player to reach 700 assists.

Kucherov provided extra cushion for the Lightning early in the third period, taking a feed from Goncalves at the right dot and rifling a one-timer past Stolarz at 2:59.

The Lightning were without head coach Jon Cooper, who will miss the first two games out of the break following the death of his father, Robert, earlier this week. Cooper had just returned stateside after coaching Canada to the silver medal at the Olympics.

With defensemen D’Astous and Emil Lilleberg returning from injury, the Lightning employed an 11-forward, seven-defensemen lineup to spread out the minutes among the defenseman group.

Point was playing in his first game since injuring his right knee Jan. 12 in Philadelphia. He thought he had a goal in the first period on the power play, but a coach’s challenge video review ruled that Kucherov was offside on the play.

Kucherov also had a goal taken off the board. He tipped a D’Astous pass to the far post into the back of the net, but a review ruled that Brandon Hagel was offside.