Cirelli has 3 points, Lightning top Islanders to push point streak to 9

TAMPA -- Anthony Cirelli scored twice and had an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning extended their point streak to nine games with a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

"Every night there's two points up for grabs and they're huge points for us," Cirelli said. "Step one is getting to the playoffs. We know how big these points are, so I think it's just us going into each and every game like we need a win."

Steven Stamkos scored, and Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel each had two assists for the Lightning (41-25-7), who won their third straight and are 8-0-1 in their past nine games. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves.

Tampa Bay, which holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, remained four points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division. Toronto defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-0 on Saturday.

Kyle Palmieri scored for the Islanders (31-27-15), who have lost eight of 10 (2-7-1). Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves.

New York is five points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the second wild card from the East.

"We didn’t have a good start, that’s for sure," Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. "They jumped on us right away. We didn’t handle the puck well in the first. I am happy the way we responded in the second and third periods. We had chances in the second period, a lot of good looks. Their goalie made some great saves.”

Palmieri gave New York a 1-0 lead at 2:25 of the first period after he sent the puck to the net from outside the right circle and it deflected off Lightning defenseman Matt Dumba past Vasilevskiy.

Darren Raddysh tied it 1-1 on the power play at 14:25 with a one-timer from the point past Varlamov to the glove side.

Cirelli scored 25 seconds later to put Tampa Bay ahead 2-1 at 15:00 when he took a centering pass from Nick Perbix in front of the net and flicked the puck in.

"I think we had a phenomenal start against a team that had a really big win against [the Florida Panthers on Thursday]," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We came out in the first period and did what we had to do. Now, in saying that, I thought their goalie played exceptional. It took us a while to score, but it was a big moment for us to come out of that period with the lead."

Stamkos extended it to 3-1 after scoring 21 seconds into the third period. Lightning defenseman Emil Lilleberg took a shot from the point and Stamkos redirected it past Varlamov for his 30th goal of the season.

The goal was confirmed after video review determined there was no high stick.

"It was nice to get that insurance goal pretty early," Stamkos said. "I was pretty confident it wasn't a high stick...nice to see that one go in, just the timing of the goal to give us a two-goal cushion there."

Said Varlamov: "I have to watch the replay. I’ll leave it to the refs. I thought it was 50-50. I don’t know."

Cirelli scored his second goal into an empty net at 17:14 for the 4-1 final.

"We have no choice but to turn the page," Islanders forward Anders Lee said. "The way we competed and generated chances in the final 40 (minutes), those will start going in for us."

NOTES: Stamkos reached the 30-goal mark for the ninth time in his career. He has the third-most 30-goal seasons among active players behind Alex Ovechkin (17) and Sidney Crosby (12). Stamkos’ goal also moved him past Maurice "Rocket" Richard for 32nd in NHL history (545). ...Kucherov has 126 points (42 goals, 84 assists) this season, second in the NHL behind Nathan MacKinnon (127) of the Colorado Avalanche.