Point, Hagel each has goal, assist in Lightning win against Canucks

TAMPA -- Brayden Point, Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli each had a goal and an assist for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.

Nikita Kucherov scored, and Nicholas Paul had two assists for the Lightning (2-0-0) in their home opener. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves.

"It's not too much about the X's and O's, there's still work to be done in 5-on-5," Tampa Bay captain Victor Hedman said. "It's just dedication by the guys and finding ways to win games. Super proud of the way we came out today."

Conor Garland scored for the Canucks (0-1-2). Arturs Silovs made 24 saves.

"We weren't ready to play the first period," Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. "It was only 1-0, but I didn't think we wanted to battle. Second and third I thought we had some chances. We didn't bury them, and you can't give a team like that a 2-0 lead."

Kucherov gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 3:55 of the first period, scoring with a snap shot from the right circle off a cross-ice pass from Darren Raddysh. It was the fourth goal of the season for Kucherov, who scored a natural hat trick in a 4-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Tampa Bay’s season opener on Friday.

Point extended it to 2-0 at 7:43 of the second period with a one-timer off a drop pass from Jake Guentzel.

"He's extremely smart," Point said of Guentzel. "He's got talent to make plays, but he's smart. He knows where to go. He finds time and space for himself. He keeps pucks alive in battles and he wins a lot of those battles. It's been really fun playing with him."

Cirelli scored just 39 seconds into the third period to make it 3-0, burying the puck past Silovs from in front of the net.

"It was a little bit frustrating because [the Cirelli line] was a little bit of the cause of our issues in the second," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Which is not the way they play. ... It's not their identity, and that's why it was great for them to score in the first minute of the third and doing it the way they do it, blue paint, crashing the net and doing the things that make them a pain in the butt."

Garland cut it to 3-1 with a power-play goal at 4:14, stuffing the puck in from the goal line off a shot from Brock Boeser.

"Our start ... we just didn't come out on time. It's unacceptable on the first game in the road trip," Garland said. "We put ourselves behind the eight ball. We should have had one late in the second and it's a different game. ... 2-1 is a big difference from 2-0."

Hagel scored an empty-net goal at 18:14 for the 4-1 final.

"I was happy with a lot of the things that happened tonight, just the last 15 minutes of the second period irked me," Cooper said. "But they rallied in the third."

NOTE: Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers, who was a game-time decision, was minus-2 and was assessed six penalty minutes in 20:00 of ice time.