Steven Stamkos scored two power-play goals and assisted on another tally to help the Tampa Bay Lightning, the NHL's top team, stroll past the visiting Dallas Stars 6-0 on Thursday to win their fourth straight game.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots to shut out the Stars for the second time this season. He has five shutouts this season and 17 in his five-year NHL career. Vasilevskiy has made 67 saves against Dallas in the past two outings and is now 5-0-1 in his career against the Stars.

The Lightning are 6-0-2 in their past eight games, lead the NHL with 90 points and have scored at least five goals in each of their past four games. Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists in the easy win for Tampa Bay.

The first four scores for the Lightning came in a 7:21 span of the first period and spotted them a 4-0 lead. First, Stamkos buried a shot past Dallas netminder Anton Khudobin at the 7:19 mark after a beautiful pass from Ondrej Palat and an assist from Kucherov.

The Lightning added to the lead about five minutes later with a pair of goals in a 14-second span.

On the first, Mikhail Sergachev collected a Kucherov feed and unleashed a wrist shot past Khudobin at the 12:39 mark, with Brayden Point garnering the secondary assist on the play. Then Tyler Johnson reached to tip in a pass from Stamkos through Khudobin and into the net to make it 3-0. Palat also got an assist on that score.

Dallas pulled Khudobin after Johnson's goal, with Landon Bow taking over between the pipes. That didn't even slow the Lightning as Kucherov scored on a blistering wrister from the middle of the offensive zone after a pass from Alex Killorn at the 14:40 mark to push the lead to 4-0.

Kucherov, who leads the league in scoring (92 points) and assists (66) now has 11 points (four goals and seven assists) in his past three games.

Khudobin returned to begin the second period but had little help and almost no success in stopping the Tampa Bay scoring barrage. Killorn added a goal at the 8:23 mark off assists from Anton Stralman and Anthony Cirelli to make it 5-0.

Stamkos then scored his second power-play goal when he collected a cross-ice pass from Kucherov and hesitated for just a beat before firing a shot over Khudobin's left shoulder.

The margin of defeat was the largest of the season for the Stars, who are now 6-2-1 in their past nine games, but have lost three of four during their current five-game road trip.

The Stars conclude their trip Saturday at Carolina. Tampa Bay returns to the ice when it hosts Montreal, also on Saturday.

--Field Level Media