Hagel has 5 assists, Lightning cruise past Avalanche

TAMPA -- Brandon Hagel had an NHL career-high five assists, including tying the League record with four in the first period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Colorado Avalanche 8-2 at Amalie Arena on Monday.

"After the game they said I was involved with [Mario] Lemieux and [Wayne] Gretzky somehow," Hagel said, referencing two other players who have had four assists in a first period. "I think tonight we came out and we stuck with it from the puck drop. Everyone in this room played the right way. If we can play like that every game, good things are going to happen."

Hagel also tied for the most assists in a game in Tampa Bay history.

"For him to get those points shorthanded, power-play and 5-versus-5 just shows the versatility of the kid,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “But he'll be the first one to put the accolades on his teammates."

Jake Guentzel scored twice, and Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists for the Lightning (11-7-2), who are 4-1-2 in their past seven games. Nick Perbix had a goal and an assist, Anthony Cirelli scored to extend his goal streak to six games, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.

Ivan Ivan scored twice for the Avalanche (12-10-0), who had won three straight and six of seven. Justus Annunen allowed five goals on 16 shots; he gave up three goals on seven shots before he was pulled at 10:03 of the first period, then returned at the start of the third period. Alexandar Georgiev allowed three goals on 17 shots.

"No one is happy with the way we played tonight," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "I think a lot of guys were prepared to work and compete but our brains were not turned on, so then it turns into just chasing the game all over the place and execution got bad and ... yeah, just one of those nights."

Perbix gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 5:41 of the first period with a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle, with Michael Eyssimont providing a screen.

Guentzel extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 7:46, whipping a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Annunen through the five-hole.

"We played well from the start to finish," Guentzel said. "It was a good 60 minutes. That's a high-offense team over there, so you've got to stay on them the whole time. I thought we did that from the start."

Ivan cut it to 2-1 at 8:56 when he stuffed in the rebound of a shot by Valeri Nichushkin.

"I take [the goals] as a positive for me, but I don't think it was acceptable the way we played," Ivan said. "I know it's the last game on the road trip, but this is not the way we wanted to end the road trip. This shouldn't happen anymore. We've got to be better."

Kucherov pushed the lead to 3-1 at 10:03 with a one-timer from the right circle to the short side off a pass from Hagel. Annunen was pulled after the goal.

Luke Glendening made it 4-1 with a short-handed goal at 13:15, scoring on the rebound of Hagel’s shot from the right circle on the rush. It was Glendening’s first goal of the season.

Hagel started the play by stealing the puck from Nathan MacKinnon in Tampa Bay’s defensive zone.

“[Hagel] was outstanding," Glendening said. "… It was a great play by him and he had an unbelievable night. It was fun to watch."

Cirelli extended it to 5-1 at 19:46 when he scored on a loose puck in the slot after Erik Cernak’s initial shot hit Colorado defenseman Samuel Girard.

Brayden Point scored on the power play to make it 6-1 at 9:38 of the second period.

Ivan cut it to 6-2 at 1:08 of the third period. His wrist shot went off the left post, and the puck deflected off Point's skate and past Vasilevskiy.

"We didn't want to finish the road trip off like this," Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. "At the same time we were [3-1-0] on the road, so you've got to take the positives from that. For us I think there's a lot to learn from tonight."

Guentzel’s second of the game made it 7-2 at 3:09. He scored through the five-hole from the right circle off a diagonal lead pass from Perbix.

Eyssimont scored his first of the season at 4:44 for the 8-2 final.

"We played a really good team in Dallas a couple of nights ago and the result was really unfortunate," Cooper said of a 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday. "A couple of minutes there we wish we could take back, but the totality of the game we did a lot of good things. That was our message today: You keep doing those things and you're going to win more than you lose. I give a ton of credit to the guys for sticking with it."

NOTES: Avalanche forward Jonathan Drouin (upper body) was a late scratch. ... It was the first multigoal game of Ivan’s NHL career (22 games). … Lightning forward Mitchell Chaffee (undisclosed) left the game in the second period. There was no update. ... The other Tampa Bay players with five assists in a game are Mark Recchi (March 1, 2009), Martin St. Louis (Nov. 18, 2010) and Darren Raddysh (March 9, 2024). ... Cirelli has seven goals during his goal streak. The longest in Lightning history is eight, by Kucherov and Brian Bradley. ... Point has six goals in the past six games. ... Tampa Bay forward Zemgus Girgensons got his 100th NHL assist.