Steven Stamkos delivered his 13th career hat trick in a four-point night and the Tampa Bay Lightning earned a 5-2 victory over the visiting Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
After Anthony Cirelli’s tiebreaking 20th goal put Tampa Bay up 3-2 at 5:40 of the third period, Stamkos notched his second goal 16 seconds later for the Lightning (44-27-7, 95 points). He added an empty-net tally for his 39th goal to go along with an earlier assist.
Brayden Point took the Tampa Bay lead with his 44th goal.
In his fourth straight three-point game, the Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov registered three assists for his 39th multi-point outing, passing his franchise record set in 2018-19.
It was Kucherov’s 11th three-assist game this season. Brandon Hagel had two assists for Tampa Bay and Anthony Duclair notched his 300th career NHL point with a helper.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves to beat the Blue Jackets for the eighth straight time and reach 30 wins this season.
For Columbus (26-41-12, 64 points), Kirill Marchenko scored twice to set a career-high in goals with 23, while Johnny Gaudreau’s second-period assist gave him at 500 for his career. In his sixth outing, goalie Jet Greaves stopped 28 shots.
The Lightning worked a slick first-period breakout that led to Duclair feeding a pass to Kucherov skating to the right of Greaves. The high-scoring right wing then spun and fired a blind pass to Point, who beat Greaves at 16:31 for a 1-0 Lightning lead.
Columbus right winger Marchenko received a feed from Cole Sillinger, sliced his way into the slot and tied the game 1-1. Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson also added a assist on the goal with just 43 seconds left in the frame.
In the second period, the Blue Jackets and their 30th-ranked power play had a pair of extra-man opportunities in the first half of the period, the second when the Lightning received a bench penalty for too many men on the ice.
Marchenko took advantage of the space in the slot for the second time, skating in from his own blue line and beating Vasilevskiy high on the glove side at 7:13 for a 2-1 lead. Gaudreau posted the primary assist on the goal to reach his milestone.
During the Lightning’s first power play, Stamkos drilled his 19th goal on the man advantage – his sixth straight game hitting the net — to knot the game 2-2 at 14:17.
–Field Level Media
