A flurry of chances was accompanied by a flurry of goals for the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday in a 6-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at AMALIE Arena.
Anthony Cirelli got the scoring started for Tampa Bay on Tuesday, the first of four goals for the home team in the first period. Ryan McDonagh made it 2-0 before Cirelli’s second of the game pushed the lead to 3-0.
Brayden Point rounded out a busy first period on offense with his 4-0 goal with four minutes left. The Lightning had two more goals in the second period to hit six goals.
Nikita Kucherov had two assists in the period to reach 100 points on the season and added a goal to make it 5-0 in period three. Brandon Hagel’s goal rounded out the Lightning scoring before Pittsburgh scored late.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 15 stops for the win.
The Lightning are now 41-25-5 this season and host Utah Hockey Club on Thursday.
Scoring summary
First period
TBL 1, PIT 0
12:13 Anthony Cirelli (25) - Nick Paul, Ryan McDonagh
Anthony Cirelli celebrated his 500th career NHL game with the first goal of the night, fighting for a rebound after a Nick Paul shot and slipping the puck through Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry’s pads.
TBL 2, PIT 0
13:30 McDonagh (3) - Nikita Kucherov, Erik Cernak
Ryan McDonagh’s centering pass from the left corner took a fortunate bounce off a Penguins defender in front, deflecting home for a 2-0 lead just over a minute after Cirelli’s marker.
TBL 3, PIT 0
15:12 Cirelli (26) - Hagel, JJ Moser
Cirelli celebrated further with his second goal of the night, this time beating Jarry low blocker with his shot from the bottom of the left circle.
TBL 4, PIT 0
16:00 Point (35) - Jake Guentzel, Kucherov
Point tapped in the fourth goal of the period to finish a passing play with Jake Guentzel and Kucherov.
Shots on goal: TBL 11, PIT 4
Second period
TBL 5, PIT 0
15:31 Kucherov (31) - Darren Raddysh, Oliver Bjorkstrand - PP
Kucherov earned his third point of the night with a power-play goal on his shot from the right circle.
TBL 6, PIT 0
19:17 Hagel (33) - Nick Perbix, Emil Lilleberg
Brandon Hagel padded the Bolts lead on a backdoor tap-in at the left post. Defenseman Nick Perbix launched the pass from the right point.
Shots on goal: TBL 10, PIT 4
Third period
TBL 6, PIT 1
14:15 Bryan Rust (26) - Matt Grzelcyk, Sidney Crosby
Pittsburgh got their lone goal late in period three with Bryan Rust’s deflection at the right post.
Total shots: TBL 27, PIT 16
