Nikita Kucherov produced three points and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots to guide the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 6-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.
Brandon Hagel opened the scoring for Tampa Bay on a power-play tip-in at 4:11 of the first period. Ivan Barbashev answered for Vegas with his first goal of the season at 13:16, but John Carlson put the Lightning back ahead 48 seconds later with an unassisted wrist shot. The Golden Knights leveled the score again at 18:30 when Mark Stone scored shorthanded on a snap shot.
Tampa Bay took control with three unanswered goals during the second period. Anthony Cirelli broke the tie at 6:44 with a wrist shot off a feed from Kucherov, then added an unassisted snap shot at 10:09 to widen the advantage. Victor Hedman extended the margin to 5-2 at 17:56 with an unassisted wrist shot before Kucherov added an unassisted snap shot at 5:16 of the third period.
Vasilevskiy earned the win with 32 saves on 34 shots as Vegas outshot Tampa Bay 34-21. Carter Hart took the loss after stopping 15 of 21 shots. The Lightning finished 1 for 3 on the power play and killed off all four penalties they faced.
The victory pushed Tampa Bay to a 7-2-0 record and extended its winning streak to three games. Vegas dropped to 8-3-0 on the season following the defeat.
Both clubs hit the road for their next games. The Golden Knights visit the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, while the Lightning travel to face the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.
