TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning extended their winning streak to five games with a 4-1 victory against the Seattle Kraken on Sunday night.
Nikita Kucherov, Luke Glendening and Nick Paul scored in the third period and Brandon Hagel added his third short-handed goal of the season as the Lightning improved to 6-0-1 in their last seven games.
Shane Wright scored, and Ales Stezka finished with 19 saves in his NHL debut for Seattle.
After a scoreless first period, Hagel gave the Lightning the lead when he raced up ice to fend off Oliver Bjorkstrand and put a spinning backhander on goal for his league-leading seventh short-handed score of the season at 9:27 of the second period.
Kucherov and Glendening scored 1:43 apart in the third period to give Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead. Wright tipped in a shot by Brandon Montour to cut it 3-1 at 15:24. Paul added an empty-net goal.
Takeaways
Kraken: Seattle fell to 0-9 in the second half of back-to-back games. … Stezka, a 28-year-old rookie, became the first goalie to make an NHL debut with the Kraken.
Lightning: Tampa Bay recorded its 10th short-handed goal of the season, second-most in the league behind Florida (12). … Defenseman J.J. Moser returned to the lineup after missing 28 games with an undisclosed lower-body injury.
Key moment
Tampa Bay was nursing a one-goal lead in the third period when the Lightning scored off a set faceoff play. Brayden Point pulled a puck off the draw back to Nikita Kucherov, who scored on a quick shot past Stezka at 11:15 of the third.
Key stat
Tampa Bay improved to 7-0-1 all-time against Seattle.
Up next
Both teams play Tuesday. Seattle is at St. Louis, while Tampa Bay hosts Edmonton.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Erik Erlendsson, The Associated Press
