CBJ rally falls short against Tampa Bay

TAMPA -- Jake Guentzel extended his goal streak to seven games and had an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning held off the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3 at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.

Nick Paul had a goal and two assists for the Lightning (17-10-2), who have won five of six and led 4-0 entering the third period. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves.

"The way we played for the first two periods ... hard defense, we're not forcing anything," Paul said. "Everything we got came from the defensive zone. When you have some goals on the board it's easy to want to push for more, but as a team if you want to go far in this league you better be comfortable shutting down and playing D."

Mikael Pyythia, Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger scored for the Blue Jackets (12-15-5), who are 0-3-2 in their past five games. Kirill Marchenko had two assists, and Jet Greaves made 27 saves.

"We were very frustrated after two (periods) with the way we were competing, the way we were battling, the way we were soft and looked like we were intimidated for whatever reason," Columbus coach Dean Evason said. "It's easy to respond when you get into a situation like that and you're prodded a little bit. Are we happy with the response? Absolutely. ... We don't question how hard our group is trying to work, but for two periods ... there's no reason why you don't start that way."

Luke Glendening gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 3:21 of the first period when he redirected a shot from Nick Perbix.

Paul extended the lead to 2-0 at 1:28 of the second period after he won a puck battle against Sillinger near the right boards and scored from the high slot.

Guentzel made it 3-0 at 7:36, stuffing in his own rebound. He has nine goals during his streak, which is the longest by any player this season.

"First two periods were really good and then we kept taking too many penalties," Lightning captain Victor Hedman said. "That costs us a few. End of the day we got two points. After a long road trip, coming home and getting a win is big."

Mitchell Chaffee pushed it to 4-0 with a power-play goal at 14:18, scoring from the slot off a backhand feed by Paul.

"We have a choice like ... just give or step up, so we stepped up, but that's not enough," Pyythia said. "We have to play [the] full 60 minutes if we want to win the hockey games."

Pyythia cut it to 4-1 at 7:23 of the third period. Sean Kuraly forced a turnover by Hedman and passed to Pyythia, who scored from the high slot.

Fantilli scored 42 seconds later to make it 4-2, finishing a 3-on-1 rush with a wrist shot at 8:05, and Sillinger added a power-play goal to pull Columbus within 4-3 at 14:11.

"Down 4-0 is kind of embarrassing, especially with what happened in Carolina," Fantilli said, referring to a 4-1 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, when the Blue Jackets trailed 2-0 after the first period. "We wanted to come in and have a great game. Obviously that wasn't it from the start. We tried to win with what we had left in the third. It wasn't enough."

Brayden Point scored into an empty net at 17:51 for the 5-3 final.

"This is a hard league to win in. ... Just because you're up 4-0 doesn't mean you're supposed to win 4-0 or you're supposed to win 6-0," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "You go on a road trip, go out west, change time zones, gone a week and a half and you've had some success, that first game back is tough.

“For two periods these guys couldn't have played any better. They built the lead that they had. Was there part of me that I think our guys were hoping the other team was going to quit and they could just skate through the third period? And they didn't. This is the best of the best. ... I'm not apologizing for winning. That's what we're here to do."

NOTES: Point has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) during a six-game point streak. ... Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov assisted on Point’s goal and has 18 points (three goals, 15 assists) over the past eight games he has played. He missed two games during that stretch (on Nov. 30 and Dec. 5) because of an undisclosed injury. ... The Blue Jackets have never had a four-goal comeback win.