Point’s hat trick leads Lightning past Penguins


Reuters | Updated: 16-11-2018 09:35 IST | Created: 16-11-2018 09:35 IST

Brayden Point's natural hat trick Thursday erased an early two-goal deficit for the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning en route to a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Yanni Gourde scored the deciding goal in the second period, and Nikita Kucherov had three assists for Tampa Bay, which ended a two-game losing streak by scoring all four goals on power plays.

Louis Domingue made 28 saves for the Lightning, as Tampa Bay played without No. 1 goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was sent home for evaluation of a broken foot he suffered in practice Wednesday.

Patric Hornqvist had two goals and an assist, Phil Kessel scored his ninth goal of the season and Evgeni Malkin added two assists for Pittsburgh, which fell to 1-6-1 in its past eight games.

Pittsburgh No. 1 goaltender Matt Murray stopped 22 of 26 shots. He had not played since Nov. 5 as the Penguins gave him time to work on his game. He has not won since Oct. 25.

Pittsburgh was without captain Sidney Crosby, who is day-to-day because of an upper-body injury he suffered Tuesday at New Jersey.

Hornqvist deflected a Kessel shot past Domingue's glove at 10:33 of the first period for a power-play goal and a 1-0 Pittsburgh lead.

Kessel's power-play goal at 13:49 of the first, a snapper from the slot, made it 2-0.

Point began his spree with a five-on-three goal with 2.7 seconds left in the first on a shot from the lower left circle high off the far post to cut it to 2-1.

He tied the score 41 seconds into the second, again on a five-on-three, on a one-timer from Steven Stamkos, and gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead on a conventional power play at 1:28 of the second, on a one-timer from the slot.

Hornqvist scored his second goal at 4:29 of the second, shoveling it under Domingue for a 3-3 tie on the game's only even-strength goal.

Gourde boosted Tampa Bay to 4-for-4 on the power play, and to a 4-3 lead at 7:56 of the second, with a blast from the top of the right circle.

--Field Level Media

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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