Nikita Kucherov scored a goal and had two assists to move into a tie for the Tampa Bay career scoring lead and as the Lightning cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
Kucherov capped the scoring with a breakaway goal early in the third period for his 1,137th career point, tying the team career mark set by Steven Stamkos.
Anthony Cirelli scored twice during the Lightning’s three-goal second period. John Carlson, Brandon Hagel and Victor Hedman added a goal apiece while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots for Tampa Bay, which won its third straight game.
Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev tallied for Vegas, which had a three-game winning streak snapped. Carter Hart finished with 15 saves.
Tampa Bay, playing the first game of a three-game road trip that also includes stops at Colorado and Utah, took a 1-0 lead at the 4:11 mark of the first period. On a power play, Hagel deflected a point shot by Charle-Edouard D’Astous past Hart for his team-best seventh goal.
Vegas tied it when Barbashev put the rebound of a Mitch Marner shot into an open net for his first goal at 13:16 of the first.
The Lightning regained the lead 48 seconds later when Carlson buried a rebound of his own shot.
The Golden Knights tied it near the end of the period on a short-handed goal by Stone, who ripped in a wrist shot from the bottom left circle after a turnover by Vasilevskiy for his team-leading eighth goal.
Tampa Bay took control of the game with three unanswered goals in the second period to build a 5-2 lead.
Cirelli scored twice in a 3:25 span, the first on a one-timer inside the right post off a Kucherov pass from the end boards, the second a wrist shot from the edge of the left circle for his 150th career goal.
Hedman made it 5-2 at 17:56 of the middle frame with a shot from the left point past a Jake Guentzel screen.
Early in the third period, Kucherov stole the puck from defenseman Jeremy Lauzon near the blue line and skated in and roofed a shot past Hart’s blocker side at 5:16.