Tampa Bay beat the team atop the NHL standings on Tuesday night to extend their winning streak to a season-best eight straight games.
The Lightning beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 at Benchmark International Arena behind a third-period goal from Brandon Hagel, his 20th of the year, to improve to 26-13-3 this season.
Jake Guentzel scored the game’s first goal with 12 seconds remaining in the first period before the Avalanche scored two straight goals to open the second.
Lightning forward Zemgus Girgensons evened the score at 2-2 late in the middle frame, and Hagel then won the game in the third.
Anthony Cirelli added an empty-net goal.
Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov had two assists to co-lead all players with Hagel and Darren Raddysh, and teammate Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves to pick up his sixth straight win.
Tampa Bay next plays on the road this Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Scoring summary
First period
TBL 1, COL 0
19:48 Jake Guentzel (19) - Nikita Kucherov, Darren Raddysh - PP
Tampa Bay ended an entertaining first period with the first score of the night, this one a Jake Guentzel power-play tally from near the goal-line.
Shots on goal: TBL 12, COL 7
Second period
TBL 1, COL 1
3:22 Parker Kelly (8) - Zakhar Bardakov, Ilya Solovyov
The Avalanche tied the game by burying a loose puck in the blue paint early in the second period.
COL 2, TBL 1
9:31 Brock Nelson (19) - Cale Makar
Colorado took its first lead midway through the second period on a Brock Nelson shot from the left circle.
COL 2, TBL 2
17:22 Zemgus Girgensons (6) - Yanni Gourde, Pontus Holmberg
Tampa Bay tied the game back up when forward Zemgus Girgensons tapped home Yanni Gourde’s centering pass from the right faceoff circle with 2:38 remaining in the middle frame.
Shots on goal: COL 14, TBL 10
Third period
TBL 3, COL 2
8:31 Brandon Hagel (20) - Max Crozier, Kucherov
Tampa Bay got the game-winning goal from forward Brandon Hagel, who fired a shot gloveside from the right half of the offensive zone after accepting a pass from defenseman Max Crozier.
TBL 4, COL 2
18:35 Anthony Cirelli (12) - Hagel, Raddysh - EN
The Lightning got some insurance with an empty-net goal from Anthony Cirelli.
Total shots: COL 32, TBL 28
