Kucherov was coming off a five-point game (three goals, two assists) in a 6-2 win at the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday, and moved into sole possession of second place in the NHL scoring race with 114 points (38 goals, 76 assists), three ahead of Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche and one behind leader Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, who host Tampa Bay on Saturday.
Darren Raddysh and Brandon Hagel each had a goal and an assist, Erik Cernak had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves for the Lightning (42-21-4), who have won consecutive games to start a four-game road trip after only winning twice in their previous nine (2-7-0).
Marco Rossi had two assists and Kevin Lankinen made 24 saves for the Canucks (21-39-8), who were trying to win consecutive home games for the first time this season. Vancouver is 3-3-1 in its past seven games after going 4-18-4 in its previous 26.
Jake Guentzel put Tampa Bay ahead 1-0 at 17:37 of the first period with a deflection in the slot of a Charle-Edouard D’Astous point shot that beat a screened Lankinen on the glove side. With the score, Guentzel became the third Lightning player this season to reach the 30-goal mark.
Raddysh scored 49 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0, one-timing a Kucherov pass from below the goal line past the blocker of Lankinen from the top of the right face-off circle.
Yanni Gourde scored on a screened deflection of a Raddysh point shot to make it 3-0 at 4:16, and Kucherov pushed it to 4-0 just 1:15 later with a quick shot from the top of the right circle that bounced in off the shin pad of Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek at the back edge of the crease at 5:31.
Liam Ohgren put the Canucks on the board to make it 4-1 at 12:06 as the trailer off a rush, firing a wrist shot low past the blocker of Vasilevskiy from between the tops of the circles.
Linus Karlsson knocked a rebound out of the air to cut it 4-2 at 7:04 of the third period. Vasilevskiy made a sprawling glove save off Rossi cutting across the crease, with Karlsson putting in the second chance. Rossi has nine points (three goals, six assists) during a four game point streak.
Cirelli restored the Lightning's three-goal lead 32 seconds later, redirecting a cross-ice pass from Hagel with his right skate at the top of the crease to make it 5-2 at 7:36.
Hagel snapped a shot over Lankinen’s glove from the left face-off dot on the rush at 10:35 for the 6-2 final.
Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman exited the game following the first period with an undisclosed injury. He played just 4:44 across six shifts.
