Lightning pull away from Blue Jackets in third period

TAMPA --Brandon Hagel had two goals and an assist in the third period for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Nikita Kucherov had three assists for the Lightning (19-9-1), who have won four straight and went 5-1-0 on their six-game homestand. Brian Elliott made 24 saves to win his seventh straight start.
"You've got to win your games at home, at least most of them, and that's what we did," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "Going into the third period, we've had leads or we've been tied and we've pushed in that period like we did tonight. It was a good homestand."

Kirill Marchenko scored, and Daniil Tarasov made 25 saves for the Blue Jackets (10-17-2), who have lost two in a row and five of seven.
"We played a pretty good game, and then you make a couple of mistakes and that's what this team can do to you," Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. "Two really silly mistakes and it's in the back of your net. That's the frustrating part."
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored his first goal of the season to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 3:57 of the first period. He beat Tarasov short side from the top of the left circle after taking a drop pass from Vladislav Namestnikov.
"Helping offensively when we win the game is nice," Bellemare said. "If we would've lost the game, it wouldn't have been as fun. [Columbus] is a hardworking team. We got very good goaltending from 'Moose.'"

Marchenko tied it 1-1 at 3:10 of the second period, receiving a cross-ice pass from Cole Sillinger and scoring with a shot that knuckled under Elliott's glove.
"It got me excited and it was a big goal for our team to make it 1-1," Marchenko said. "I thought we played very good in the second period and had more opportunities where we could've scored."
Sillinger agreed.
"Obviously, I thought we played a pretty hard game," he said. "Against that team you don't want to play behind, right? It would have been nice to get another one and get the go-ahead goal."
Brayden Point put Tampa Bay ahead 2-1 at 9:02 of the third period, scoring on a rebound near the left post after Hagel's shot deflected on net off the stick of Blue Jackets defenseman Marcus Bjork.
"Last game (against the Seattle Kraken) we all saw what [Point] can do," Bellemare said. "You can't ever count him out of a play. It doesn't matter how far he is in the D-zone because he's eventually going to be the first guy in the O-zone."

Hagel pushed the lead to 3-1 at 13:36 before scoring an empty-net goal at 17:19 for the 4-1 final.
"We had to weather the storm in the second period a few times," Hagel said. "We made it happen going into the third period. That's where you've got to show up, and we did that tonight. Going into the third period we knew we needed to be better."
NOTES:Lightning captain Steven Stamkos had his 14-game point streak end and remains three goals away from 500 in the NHL. … Point extended his goal streak to five games. … Blue Jackets forward Eric Robinson was scratched because of an illness. … It was the fifth time this season Kucherov has had three assists in a game. … Bellemare's goal was his first since April 16 (33 games).