One day removed from the annual holiday of trickery and pranks to open April, there was no fooling around by the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night—especially by No. 71.
Anthony Cirelli earned his second career hat-trick and the Lightning overcame a first period deficit for a 6-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Benchmark International Arena.
The Lightning are now 47-22-6 on the season and one step closer to qualifying for the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“I thought all the lines contributed, and I'm really looking at what are we giving up? And we're not giving up too much,” coach Jon Cooper said. “So that's a good sign for us, and we scored a few goals against a really good team, so I’m happy for the guys.”
The Lightning came out firing on Thursday and had a 1-0 lead to show for it. Despite a pair of Penguins goals to close the opening 20 minutes, there was no looking back by the Bolts.
Gage Goncalves intercepted a Penguins breakout pass near the top of the offensive zone and fired a shot to the net, which produced a rebound look for Cirelli at the left hashmark.
The Lightning forward collected the puck and ripped a shot past the glove of Pittsburgh goalie Stuart Skinner 5:06 into the game for a 1-0 lead and his 21st goal of the season.
Pittsburgh had a quick answer in the form of a Rickard Rakell tally after a puck bounced off a pair of Bolts near the net, allowing the Penguin to kick the puck to his stick and slip the tying goal home less than two minutes after the Lightning score.
The Penguins then took their first lead of the game with just under four minutes remaining in the opening period on a rush down the right wall for forward Egor Chinakhov, who then sent a backhand shot into the far corner of the net.
Trailing 2-1 through one period, Tampa Bay used a dynamic middle frame to even the score. The Lightning only needed 11 seconds for the tying goal, this one of the shorthanded breakaway variety on Cirelli’s second tally of the night.
Cirelli broke up a Penguins look in the defensive zone and rushed the length of the ice before out-waiting Pittsburgh goalie Stuart Skinner for the backhand goal at the left post. The goal tied for the fastest Lightning goal to open a period this season and was Cirelli’s 146th with the Lightning, passing Freddy Modin to enter the top 10 in franchise history for goals.
“We talked about it in the room, we’ve just gotta be a little bit better,” Cirelli said. “I thought we started the game pretty good, and they pushed there at the end of first, and we just had to regroup and come out a little bit harder. I just want to help where I can, so it was nice to tie the game there, and then I think we took off from there.”
Brayden Point reclaimed the advantage for Tampa Bay with 5:42 left in the middle frame—a Jake Guentzel shot was denied by Skinner, but Guentzel was able to feed the puck to a waiting Point in the slot, where the latter chipped the puck into the top right corner of the net for a 3-2 lead.
“They're a skilled team, and they had some looks that (Andrei Vasilevskiy) made some big saves on. I think once we found our legs, and were making smart plays with the puck we got our chances,” Point said. “And tonight, guys buried them.”
More pushing for Tampa Bay extended the lead in the final minute of the period.
Yanni Gourde collected the puck behind Pittsburgh’s net and slipped a pass to a crashing Zemgus Girgensons, who deked to his backhand to beat Skinner at the right post for his 100th career goal and a 4-2 score with 55 seconds left.
“Our line was working really hard all game, and we kept going, and Gourdo made a nice play,” Girgensons said. “We kept it in, Gourdo made a nice play and I just had to put it in.”
Multiple teammates had positive things to share postgame about the line of Gourde, Girgensons and Pontus Holmberg.
“They're just so hard on the puck, and they don't give guys a lot of time,” Point said. “They work extremely hard, and it was great to see them get rewarded with a goal and a great play all around.”
Nikita Kucherov got involved with the scoring in the third period, accepting a pass near the goal line in the right corner before skating to the hashmark near the boards. Kucherov turned and shelved a shot inside the right post that beat Skinner for the 5-2 goal, his 41st of the season.
Cirelli capped the hat-trick with an empty-net goal late, and the Penguins scored on a power-play look near the final horn.
“It’s pretty cool,” Cirelli said of his second career hat-trick and first since 2020. “It's not something that comes around a lot, but I think you're playing for the team and doing whatever you can to help the team. I thought it was a pretty good effort tonight from all the guys, and it was nice to get the two points.”
Cirelli’s three goals co-led the team on offense alongside Kucherov, who had his goal and two assists. Guentzel and Goncalves finished with two assists apiece.
Vasilevskiy made 21 saves in the win for Tampa Bay.
“It's definitely trending in the right direction,” Point said of the team’s play. “At the start of the road trip, we were down two in four straight. It was tough, and we were able to find ways to come out of that, but down the stretch, that's not gonna work. So the starts have been better and the game's been better I think, overall.”
The Lightning close the homestead this Saturday with a 5 p.m. matchup against an Atlantic Division opponent in the Boston Bruins.
Tampa Bay continues its chase to clinch a berth to the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the season dwindling—only seven games remain in the Lightning regular season.
“You don't take anything for granted until you get that ‘X’ by your name, and we’ve just got this laundry list of teams that everybody's battling for a spot,” Cooper said. “So they're like mini playoff games before playoff games. It's just hard to explain, but our guys have been performing well, and we’ve just got to keep this going.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Anthony Cirelli, TBL (3 Goals)
- Nikita Kucherov, TBL (Goal, 2 assists)
- Zemgus Girgensons, TBL (Game-winning goal)
