Brandon Hagel recorded five assists as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Colorado Avalanche 8-2 on Monday at Amalie Arena.
Tampa Bay built a commanding lead with a five-goal first period. Nick Perbix opened the scoring unassisted on a wrist shot at 5:41 before Jake Guentzel scored on the power play at 7:46. After Ivan Ivan responded for Colorado with a poke at 8:56, Nikita Kucherov restored the two-goal cushion on a wrist shot at 10:03. Luke Glendening followed with his first goal of the season on a shorthanded wrist shot at 13:15, and Anthony Cirelli finished the period with a snap shot at 19:46.
Brayden Point extended the lead at 9:38 of the second period with a power-play wrist shot. Ivan scored unassisted for Colorado 1:08 into the third period to make it 6-2. Tampa Bay answered with two more wrist shots, as Guentzel scored his second of the night at 3:09 and Michael Eyssimont netted his first goal of the season at 4:44.
Tampa Bay scored on both of its power plays and added a shorthanded goal while holding Colorado scoreless on three man-advantages. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 23 of 25 shots to earn the win for the Lightning. Colorado used two goaltenders, as Justus Annunen took the loss after stopping 11 of 16 shots, and Alexandar Georgiev made 14 saves on 17 shots in relief.
The victory improved Tampa Bay to 11-7-2 on the season, while Colorado fell to 12-10-0. The Lightning also completed a two-game regular-season sweep against the Avalanche, having previously defeated them 5-2 on October 30.
