Brandon Hagel recorded five assists to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to an 8-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at Amalie Arena on Monday. Tampa Bay scored five times in the opening period to seize command of the contest.
Nick Perbix opened the scoring unassisted at 5:41 of the first period with a wrist shot. Jake Guentzel followed at 7:46 with a power-play wrist shot off passes from Hagel and Nikita Kucherov. Colorado countered at 8:56 when Ivan Ivan poked in a puck set up by Valeri Nichushkin and Josh Manson, but Tampa Bay answered quickly. Kucherov scored on a wrist shot at 10:03, Luke Glendening netted a shorthanded wrist shot at 13:15 for his first goal of the season, and Anthony Cirelli capped the five-goal burst with a snap shot with 14 seconds left in the period.
Tampa Bay extended the lead to 6-1 midway through the second period when Brayden Point converted on the power play at 9:38, assisted by Hagel and Kucherov. Ivan scored an unassisted goal for Colorado 1:08 into the third period, his second tally of the night. The Lightning finished the scoring shortly after, as Guentzel recorded his second goal at 3:09 and Michael Eyssimont scored his first goal of the season at 4:44.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves on 25 shots to earn the victory for Tampa Bay. Justus Annunen took the loss for Colorado, stopping 11 of 16 shots, while Alexandr Georgiev made 14 saves on 17 shots in relief. The Lightning went 2 for 2 on the power play and added a shorthanded goal, while holding the Avalanche scoreless on three man-advantage opportunities.
With the win, the Lightning improved their regular-season record to 11-7-2 and completed a two-game season sweep against Colorado, having previously beaten them 5-2 on Oct. 30. The Avalanche saw their record fall to 12-10-0 following the loss.
