TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning were on their heels midway through the second period Tuesday night. A relentless Seattle Kraken forecheck was buzzing, Tampa Bay was fighting to get the puck out of its own end, and it seemed like just a matter of time before it relinquished its one-goal lead.
It didn’t happen. The Lightning regrouped, distancing themselves by scoring on three consecutive shots over a 3-minute, 23-second stretch and rolling to a 6-2 win at Amalie Arena.
The win, which tied its season high in goals, was the 11th in 14 games for Tampa Bay (18-9-1) and fourth in five games on their current six-game homestand.
Second periods have been the toughest for the Lightning. In each of their previous two games, they saw opening-period momentum — and leads — disappear in the period. And a Kraken team that’s been the surprise of the NHL in their second season had titled the ice with the Lightning clinging to a 2-1 lead.
Corey Perry scored with five seconds left on a power play that had not generated so much as a shot, giving Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead with 7:47 left in the second period.
Brayden Point’s 15th goal of the season 1:15 later was one of the most dazzling of the season. Nikita Kucherov found Point at the red line, and Point weaved through a triangle of Kraken defenders, deked to take defenseman Adam Larsson out of the play and coaxed Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer into protecting the near post before burying a backhand over his glove into the top far corner.
Ross Colton’s redirection in front of Mikhail Sergachev’s puck on net 2:08 after Point’s goal gave the Lightning a 5-1 lead with 4:24 left in the period.
Steven Stamkos extended his point streak to 14 games, trailing only his 18-game streak in 2010, with a third-period goal. Stamkos, who collected his own rebound in front and put it in the net, now sits just three goals shy of 500 for his career.
Two of the Lightning’s six goals came from defensemen. Ian Cole and Erik Cernak scored in the first period. Cole’s seeing-eye shot from the point went untouched though traffic in front. Cernak jumped into the rush and buried a shot from just above the right dot.
With less than two minutes remaining in the period, Jordan Eberle blocked Cole’s shot from the left point and collected the puck in the neutral zone, starting a 2-on-1 rush. Jared McCann finished the breakaway with a goal to make it 2-1.
Nikita Kucherov had his franchise-high 29th three-assist game, giving him a league-high 31 for the season.
With his second assist, Kucherov became the fastest player in Lightning history to reach 400 career assists. Kucherov, the fourth Lightning player to reach that milestone, needed just 590 games to do so. Marty St. Louis previously was the fastest but needed 708 games.
Among active players, only Connor McDavid (426), Sidney Crosby (448), Evgeni Malkin (527) Artemi Panarin (529) and Nicklas Backstrom (542) reached 400 assists faster than Kucherov.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy 36 of 38 shots to allow two or fewer goals for the sixth time in his past seven games.
