Jake Guentzel scored in his NHL-best seventh straight game and the Tampa Bay Lightning fended off a strong comeback by the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets in a 5-3 win Tuesday night.
The left winger’s second-period goal gave Guentzel the league’s longest streak this season, previously held by teammate Anthony Cirelli (six).
Nick Paul (goal, two assists) tied a career high with three points and Brayden Point netted his team-high 21st goal. Luke Glendening scored his second of the season and Mitchell Chaffee registered his sixth.
Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman returned after missing two matches.
After Andrei Vasilevskiy (28 saves) became the 83rd goaltender in NHL history to start 500 career games last week in Calgary, the Lightning held a pregame ceremony commemorating the achievement.
The Lightning won their third straight match and beat Columbus for the eighth straight time on home ice.
Mikael Pyyhtia potted a short-handed goal while Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger also scored. Kirill Marchenko had two assists and Jet Greaves stopped 27 shots for Columbus.
With defenseman Jack Johnson (upper body) already out, Columbus also lost Dante Fabbro on the rear guard after hard contact with Tampa Bay’s Conor Geekie.
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The Blue Jackets cut it to 4-3 in the third period but suffered their fifth straight loss (0-3-2) and are 1-6-2 in their past nine.
At 3:21 of the first period, Glendening redirected a long shot by Nick Perbix for a 1-0 Lightning lead.
Greaves made an outstanding save against Paul on a breakaway with four minutes left. Paul’s backhanded shot struck Greaves’ lower body and hit the crossbar. Greaves then gloved the puck as it fell toward the goal line in the crease.
However, Paul got his revenge in the second after winning a board battle near the Lightning bench, skating into the high slot and belting home his seventh tally at 1:28.
Guentzel collected his own rebound on a strong rush and slipped in his 18th goal at 7:36 with a helper from Paul.
On a five-minute power play after Sillinger went off for a misconduct penalty, Chaffee canned his first career man-advantage goal at 14:18 for a 4-0 lead.
In the third, Pyyhtia (second goal) and Fantilli (sixth) made it interesting by tallying off turnovers 41 seconds apart. Sillinger’s power-play goal, his sixth at 14:11, made it 4-3.
With Greaves pulled for the extra skater, Point scored into an empty net to ice the win.
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