Zemgus Girgensons scored his 100th career goal and Brayden Point scored his second in 14 games for Tampa Bay, which improved to 7-1-2 in its last 10 games. Jake Guentzel and Gage Goncalves had two assists, while Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 21 saves.
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Egor Chinakov scored twice and Rickard Rackell also scored for Pittsburgh. Sam Girard and Kris Letang had two assists and Stuart Skinner finished with 27 saves.
The Penguins remain in second place in the Metropolitan Division, three points ahead of the New York Islanders.
Cirelli scored Tampa Bay’s first two goals and added an empty-net goal for his first hat trick since Jan. 17, 2020.
Cirelli and Rakell traded goals 1:55 apart in the first seven minutes of the game before Chinakov gave the Penguins their first lead of the game with a putback from the right circle at 16:10.
Cirelli scored his second of the game 11 seconds into the second, deflecting a puck away from Bryan Rust and running up the ice to break away, launching a backhand shot over Skinner for a short score.
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Point put the Lightning back in front at 14:08 on a rebound. Girgensons received a pass from Gourde behind the net, moved the puck to his right as he reached the box and put a backhand into the open part of the net with 54.7 seconds left in the second.
Kucherov made it 5-2 at 13:50 of the third.
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Pittsburgh: will host the Florida Panthers on Saturday
Tampa Bay: will host the Boston Bruins on Saturday
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl