Anthony Cirelli scores twice in his 500th career game as the Lightning defeat the Penguins 6-1

TAMPA, Fla. — Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning over the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Anthony Cirelli scored twice in the first period, Brandon Hagel and Ryan McDonagh both had a goal and an assist. Brayden Point also scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 14 saves.

Tristan Jarry started in net for the Penguins but was pulled 16 minutes into the first period after allowing four goals on seven shots. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 18 shots in relief. Bryan Rust scored for Pittsburgh.

The Lightning scored four goals in the first period in the span of 3:47 to race out to the lead and never looked back.

Takeaways

Penguins: C Evgeni Malkin was a late scratch with an undisclosed upper-body injury. … Sidney Crosby extended his point streak to eight games with an assist and needs one more point to set an NHL record for 20-consecutive seasons averaging a point-per-game.

Lightning: Cirelli appeared in his 500th career regular-season game. … Kucherov reached the 100-point plateau for the fifth time in his career. … D Erik Cernak left in the first period and did not return with an undisclosed injury.

Key moment

Kucherov appeared to be injured when he was run into the side of the net by Ryan Graves and immediately headed down the tunnel. While Kucherov missed the start of the ensuing power-play chance, he returned to the ice and scored Tampa Bay’s fifth goal of the night with 8 seconds left on the man advantage.

Key stat

Kucherov is the 10th player in NHL history to record three-consecutive seasons with at least 70 assists, joining Connor McDavid as the only other active player to accomplish the feat.

Up next

On Thursday, the Penguins play at Buffalo while the Lightning host Utah.