Lightning erupt early, blow past reeling Rangers

The Tampa Bay Lightning scored three goals in a minute, 45-second span in the first period and never looked back, cruising past the host New York Rangers 5-1 on Monday night.

Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point scored two of the goals on the power play -- part of three-point showings for both players -- while Yanni Gourde tallied the middle goal of the flurry.

The Lightning (45-26-6, 96 points) moved within two points of the idle of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Atlantic Division lead while also pulling four points ahead of the third-place Florida Panthers.

Kucherov scored the first goal in the surge after Tampa Bay allowed 11 of the game's first 12 shots and received a stern message from coach Jon Cooper during a stoppage. Kucherov added assists on both of Point's goals and pulled into a tie with Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead with 115 points.

Kucherov's first assist gave him 80 for the third straight season and he joined Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey and Bobby Orr as the fourth player to record at least 80 assists in three straight seasons.

Point scored his 40th goal to tie former captain Steven Stamkos for the most consecutive 40-goal seasons in franchise history with three. He added his second goal of the night when he scored Tampa Bay's third power-play tally with 4:20 left in the game, giving him nine goals in his last nine games.

Brandon Hagel added an empty-net goal to round out the scoring. Jake Guentzel collected three assists for the Lightning, who avoided a third straight loss.

Mika Zibanejad scored a power-play goal for the Rangers (36-33-7, 79 points), who are six points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 39 saves, including five on New York's first power play before Tampa Bay surged ahead. He also slid across the crease to make a glove save on Alexis Lafreniere early in the third and a pad save on a short-handed breakaway chance by Zibanejad with about 8 1/2 minutes left.

New York's Igor Shesterkin allowed four goals on 22 shots.

After the slow start, the Lightning quickly seized control by getting to the net.

Kucherov opened the scoring by racing into the offensive zone after Tampa Bay broke up a New York odd-man rush and dishing to Point. Upon getting the return feed, Kucherov was left wide open and converted the tap-in into the open right side of the net with 6:51 remaining in the first.

Gourde lifted a backhander by Shesterkin after a New York giveaway with 6:15 left and Point made it 3-0 by jamming in a loose puck under Shesterkin at 14:54 of the period.

--Field Level Media