Anthony Cirelli scored in his sixth straight game and Brandon Hagel had four of his career-high five assists in Tampa Bay’s five-goal first period as the Lightning buried the visiting Colorado Avalanche 8-2 on Monday night.
Cirelli set the NHL’s longest goal streak this season with a quick score from the slot with just 14 seconds left in the first period for a 5-1 lead. His ninth tally left him just two games from matching the Tampa Bay record for most consecutive games with a goal, held by Nikita Kucherov and Brian Bradley.
Hagel set a franchise record with four helpers in the first period, then added another in the second.
Jake Guentzel hit the net twice, while Kucherov had a goal and two assists. Nick Perbix, Luke Glendening, Brayden Point and Michael Eyssimont collected goals as the Lightning moved to 7-2-1 on home ice. Zemgus Girgensons notched his 100th career assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.
The Lightning won both tilts in the season series by a combined score of 13-4.
For Colorado, Ivan Ivan scored twice as the club lost for just the second time in eight games (6-2-0). Goalie Justus Annunen was replaced in the first after allowing three goals and later returned. He surrendered five total on 16 shots. Alexandar Georgiev stopped 14 shots in middle relief.
Defenseman Josh Manson skated in his 600th NHL game, but left winger Jonathan Drouin (upper body) was scratched after a two-goal showing Saturday.
In the teams’ second meeting in less than a month, Perbix fired home the first marker, his second overall, at 5:41 with a screen from Eyssimont. Guentzel zipped in one on the power play just over two minutes later, but Ivan followed on a rebound 70 seconds after that.
Kucherov’s 12th tally at the midpoint chased Annunen. Hagel soon stripped Nathan MacKinnon on a Colorado power play to lead a 2-on-1 rush that ended with Glendening popping home a shorty, his first, at 13:15 before Cirelli’s last-minute goal.
In the second, Point’s seventh power-play goal, his 12th overall, was set up by a pass from Hagel at 9:38.
With Annunen back in the crease in the third, Ivan (fifth goal) and Guentzel (ninth) traded tallies before Eyssimont buried his first at 4:44.
