The Tampa Bay Lightning stormed to a three-goal lead on Tuesday night and then held off a push by the Seattle Kraken in a 6-2 win at Climate Pledge Arena as Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel added to their dynamite seasons.
The Lightning improved to 41-21-4 with the victory.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring before the game’s sixth minute with a redirection from Gage Goncalves, and Kucherov scored two consecutive goals on Lightning rushes for a 3-0 score.
Seattle answered with two goals of their own in the second period, but Tampa Bay got the last laugh with Anthony Cirelli’s goal early in the third followed by tallies from Hagel and Kucherov’s hat-trick marker into the empty net.
Kucherov had a game-high five points for Tampa Bay, which also got four from Hagel and three from Cirelli. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves in the win.
Tampa Bay will continue its road trip with a Thursday visit to play the Vancouver Canucks.
Scoring summary
First period
TBL 1, SEA 0
5:45 Gage Goncalves (11) - Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel
Tampa Bay got an early lead for the visitors by driving to the net and redirecting a Brayden Point pass through Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer.
TBL 2, SEA 0
18:49 Nikita Kucherov (35) - Brandon Hagel
Nikita Kucherov forced a turnover in the offensive zone and then completed the give-and-go with Brandon Hagel for a 2-0 Lightning lead.
Shots on goal: TBL 9, SEA 4
Second period
TBL 3, SEA 0
00:57 Kucherov (36) - Anthony Cirelli, Guentzel
Tampa Bay cushioned their advantage on another rush chance, one finished by Nikita Kucherov at the net for his second goal of the game.
TBL 3, SEA 1
1:07 Bobby McMann (23) - Matty Beniers
Seattle responded quickly by scoring on a Bobby McMann shot from the left circle.
TBL 3, SEA 2
9:46 Jake McCann (18) - Jordan Eberle, Philipp Grubauer
The Kraken reduced the lead to one goal with Jake McCann’s drive to the net and shot off the goalpost.
Shots on goal: SEA 9, TBL 6
Third period
TBL 4, SEA 2
4:35 Cirelli (16) - Kucherov, Hagel
The Lightning opened the scoring in the third period on Anthony Cirelli’s deposit of a loose puck in front of the Seattle net.
TBL 5, SEA 2
16:54 Hagel (31) - Goncalves, Kucherov - PP
Tampa Bay extended their lead with Hagel’s goal on the power play.
TBL 6, SEA 2
17:16 Kucherov (37) - Cirelli - EN
An empty-net goal handed Kucherov the hat-trick and a five-point night.
Total shots: TBL 25, SEA 18
