Evgeni Malkin has goal, 2 assists as Penguins beat Lightning

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Evgeni Malkin had a goal and two assists, Tristan Jarry made 20 saves and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Thursday night.

It was Malkin's 103rd career three-point game, which ranks fourth in team history behind Mario Lemieux (272), Sidney Crosby (155) and Jaromir Jagr (129).

"I thought that was Geno's best game of the year to this point," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "Tonight I thought he was just in beast mode the way he commanded the puck."

Malkin played in his 20th game after starting the season sidelined by a knee injury.

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper was given a game misconduct for arguing with officials with 53.7 seconds remaining in the second period after the Lightning received an extra minor penalty stemming from a scrum.

Cooper was unhappy that referee Wes McCauley briefed Sullivan on the calls but did not come to the Lightning bench.

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Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) scores past Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, March 3, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

"I'm not so sure in all the years like, what I said is something that he never heard before in his history of reffing," Cooper said. "I want to know what that was."

Sidney Crosby, Danton Heinen, Brock McGinn and Jake Guentzel had the other Pittsburgh goals as the Penguins improved to 19-6-3 on the road, including wins in eight of their last nine.

"For me it was one of our more complete efforts all year long," Sullivan said. "I thought throughout our lineup we had contributions from everybody on both