With his bestest buddy watching from the sideline, Anthony Cirelli recorded his second career hat trick as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-3. With the win, and a Buffalo Sabres loss, the Lightning crept back into a tie atop of the division and crested the 100 point mark for the seventh time under Jon Cooper’s leadership. Speaking of keeping it 100, Zemgus Girgensons recorded his 100th career goal (and it was the eventual game-winner).

Mitchell Chaffee returned to the line-up in Brandon Hagel’s absence, skating on a line with Nick Paul and Corey Perry. Chaffee had 9:23 of ice time, threw three hits, blocked two shots, and had a shot on goal. Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up another win, stopping 21-of-24 shots.

With Ottawa and Detroit both winning, the Lightning weren’t able to clinch a playoff spot, but their magic number was reduced to two. They will look to wrap up that spot in the post-season on Saturday as they take on Boston.

First Period

For two teams that have played a lot of hockey over the past few weeks, the start of the game had some jump to it. The Lightning in particular were skating very well through the neutral zone which led to some clean entries and an early edge in shots.

Anthony Cirelli and Nick Paul both had prime chances in the first five minutes as they got behind the defense. Cirelli had the far corner open, but hooked his shot just wide of the post. Stuart Skinner made the stop a few minutes later on Paul (but if he had scored, chances are it would have been overturned after it was knocked down by the Lightning with a high stick in the neutral zone).

A lead? In the first period? How about that. A really nice forecheck forced a turnover that Gage Goncalves flipped on net. Cirelli was all alone in front of the net and beat Skinner on the glove side.

Anthony Cirelli [21] (Gage Goncalves) 1-0 Lightning

Pittsburgh bounced right back on what seemed to be a pretty innocent play. A bouncing puck behind the Lightning net ended up on Rickard Rakell’s stick and jammed it past Vasilevsky to tie the game.

Rickard Rakell [21 ] (Sam Girard, Kris Letang) 1-1

The Penguins had a couple of decent chances in the back half of the period. A turnover by Emil Lilleberg in the defensive zone opened up a snapshot from Evgeni Malkin that Vasilevskiy knocked down. Anthony Mantha, the Penguins leading scorer led a two-on-one down the ice, but the combination of Darren Raddysh dropping down to take away the pass, and Kucherov’s rush to back-check forced Mantha to shoot early and Vasilevskiy gloved it fairly easily.

Skinner wasn’t going to let the Lightning netminder have all of the fun. He made a nice shoulder save on the short side as Charle-Edouard D’Astous got around the defense for a clean look. The Penguins’ defenders seemed to have a bit of difficulty early in the period judging the speed the Lightning were entering the zone with and it led to some solid chances.

The two teams traded chances, but it was the Penguins who scored the go-ahead goal as Egor Chinakov entered the zone with a ton of speed, got past McDonagh and beat Vasilevskiy with a backhander.

Egor Chinakov [19] (Bryan Rust, Sam Girard) 2-1 Penguins

The Lightning drew a penalty shortly after the goal as Connor Clifton was whistled for interference. They generated a couple of chances during the delayed 6-on-5 portion. Eventually, the Penguins controlled the puck and the 0-for-their-last-12 power play came onto the ice. It only lasted 30 seconds as Noel Acciari drew a penalty on a short-handed rush.

Nothing came out of the 4-on-4, and the Pens went on a short power play just as time ran out on the period.

Second Period

Tony Two Goals! Erik Karlsson misplayed a puck off of the boards at the Lightning blue line and Cirelli pounced on it. Breaking down the ice, he outskated Karlsson and beat Skinner on the backhand to tie the game.

Anthony Cirelli [22] (Unassisted) Short-handed, 2-2

The Lightning almost took the lead shortly after as a goal-mouth scrum left Skinner swimming around in his crease, but his teammates bailed him out after a Brayden Point shot slid under the goaltender’s leg and through the crease. Sam Girard stopped at least one potential goal to keep things tied at two.

Rakell had another prime chance off of a turnover as the Lightning had a little patch of play where they struggled to clear the puck. They got a little flip-the-puck happy and weren’t exiting the zone with the puck (or at all). They got back to basics without the Penguins doing any damage and the game settled into another tight-checking groove with the chances coming a lot slower.

The Penguins started to tilt the ice a little as they clogged up the neutral zone. Malkin and Connor Clifton had good looks that Vasilevskiy stopped. However, the Lightning finally got a smooth breakout and a tricky shot from Jake Guentzel had the Penguins scrambling a little. Guentzel followed his shot and fed it back to Brayden Point. It wasn’t the cleanest shot from Point, but it found it’s way into the back of the net to give the Lightning the lead.

Brayden Point [18] (Jake Guentzel, Nikita Kucherov) 3-2 Lightning

As they’ve done all night, the Lightning surged after the goal, but weren’t able to add to the lead. The Yanni Gourde line had some solid looks and Jake Guentzel whistled a shot just past the net. Pittsburgh snuck a good look off of Girard’s stick as he flashed into the slot, but Vasilevskiy stopped it with the crest of his jersey.

With time running down in the period, the Gourde line was finally rewarded with a goal for their hard work, and it was a milestone. The Lightning kept the puck in the zone, threw it down behind the net and Gourde fed it to Zemgus Girgensons who beat Skinner for his 100th career goal.

Zemgus Girgensons [9] (Yanni Gourde, Ryan McDonagh) 4-2 Lightning

Third Period

It was a choppy start to the third period that was highlighted by Malkin and Oliver Bjorkstrand squaring off in front of the benches. It never got to the point of punches getting thrown, but Malkin picked up an extra minor to send the Lightning to their second power play.

Bjorkstrand sitting in the box and Brandon Hagel in the press box left an opening on the top power play and Corey Perry filled the role. It wasn’t a great power play (their best chance was Raddysh glancing one off of the post), but at least they didn’t take a penalty this time. As the advantage expired, Kucherov went down awkwardly and took a few seconds to get back to his skates before slowly skating to the bench.

He was back on the ice a few minutes later and whipped a bouncing puck at the net that Skinner had to be on his toes to stop. The Lightning weren’t dominating play, but they were keeping the Penguins honest and away from the net. Six minutes into the period and they had yet to allow a shot on net.

Even a power play for Pittsburgh failed to generate a shot, in fact, the best chance came from Jake Guentzel, who had a rush opportunity short-handed that Skinner fought off. The Penguins finally got a shot short-handed right before Raddysh took another penalty on the power play. Another 4-on-4 opportunity led to some open ice, but no really solid chances (Kucherov danced into the zone but his shot was wide of the net).

Erik Cernak put a nice move on Erik Karlsson but couldn’t finish the move on his backhand. Had he pulled it off it would have definitely been the best of his career. Someone known for pulling off the unexpected goal? Nikita Kucherov. He took a puck from behind the red line, drifted to the far bottom of the right circle and whipped it over the shoulder of Skinner from a bad angle to make it 5-2.

Nikita Kucherov [41] (Charle-Edouard D’Astous, Jake Guentzel) 5-2 Lightning

Dan Muse went with full Jon Cooper and pulled Skinner with over five minutes to go. While Andrei Vasilevskiy’s attempt at the empty net fell way short, Cirelli’s did not. Tony Three Goals finished off the hat trick to drive the final nail in the coffin.

Anthony Cirelli [23] (Gage Goncalves, Nikita Kucherov) Empty Net, 6-2 Lightning

A late power play goal (0.08 seconds left on the clock) annoyed Vasilevskiy as he tried to snap his stick after Chinakov whipped one past him, but the Bolts still had the win, and moved back into a tie with Buffalo, who lost to the Senators.

Egor Chinakov [20] (Kris Letang, Anthony Mantha) Power Play, 6-3 Lightning

The Lightning bounced back from their loss to Montreal with a solid, playoff-like win over a team that had been playing really well. Now they’ll finish up the home stand with a big game against Boston on Saturday.

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Highlights