Hagel has 3 points, Lightning defeat Sharks to extend point streak to 14

TAMPA -- Brandon Hagel had two goals and an assist for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who extended their point streak to 14 games with a 4-1 win against the San Jose Sharks at Benchmark International Arena on Tuesday.

Jake Guentzel and Anthony Cirelli each had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (31-13-4), who are 13-0-1 during the streak. Nikita Kucherov had three assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

"These are always dicey games, especially when you go on a five-game [road trip] and you come back and you just don't want to take a breath," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "The guys didn't take a breath tonight. You need this [streak] just to stay relevant in the Atlantic. You kind of need to go on these to make sure you're putting yourself in a spot to make the playoffs."

Tyler Toffoli scored for the Sharks (25-21-3), who were coming off a 4-1 win at the Florida Panthers on Monday. Yaroslav Askarov made 16 saves.

"We didn't win enough pucks in all three zones, especially the offensive zone," San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said. "We did some good things in that first period. We had a good road period, but we handed them one there at the end of the first. The second we weren't great and the third we kind of ran out of gas."

Toffoli gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 14:37 of the first period. William Eklund got control of the puck following a face-off win by Alexander Wennberg in the left circle, skated around the net, and had his wraparound attempt deflect in off Toffoli, who had inside position on Charle-Edouard D'Astous.

"[Eklund] did a good job breaking away and getting a little space for himself, and I just went to the net and it was just a fortunate bounce," Toffoli said. "I think we found a way to generate some more opportunities, but that's also a very good goalie in there."

Hagel responded 33 seconds later to tie the game 1-1 at 15:10. After Kucherov forced San Jose into a turnover in its own zone, Cirelli settled the puck in the right circle and found Hagel at the far post for a backdoor tap-in.

"When everyone is buying into their role and their job every time they step on the ice, it makes it easy for the goals to go into the net," Hagel said. "Especially when you're playing good defense and you've got 'Vasy' kicking. There's so many saves he makes that give us confidence."

Cirelli gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead at 1:49 of the second period. Hagel took a backdoor pass from Kucherov at the left post before wrapping it around to the right post, where Cirelli poked it past a sprawling Askarov.

However, Cirelli would leave the game with an undisclosed injury in the opening minute of the third period. There was no update on his status from Cooper postgame.

Guentzel extended the lead to 3-1 at 3:17 of the second period. Gage Goncalves intercepted the puck along the left boards and sent a pass down to Dominic James, who found a wide-open Guentzel for a one-timer from the right hash marks.

"It's obviously fun when you're winning. It's a lot easier when you're winning and it's a lot more fun," James said. "It's fun playing with two guys that can make such great plays. If you get it to them they're going to score, like Jake did tonight."

Hagel added an empty-net goal at 17:41 of the third period for the 4-1 final.

"I think it was just tough to get stuff going offensively," Sharks rookie center Michael Misa said. "We didn't have much going on. We had some chances, but we just couldn't score."

NOTES: Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini was held without a point in consecutive games for only the second time this season. ... Hagel has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games.