TAMPA, Fla. -- Tampa Bay's high-octane offense rolled through the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions for the second time in 10 days.

Steven Stamkos tied a career high with four points while Nikita Kucherov scored twice and finished with a season-high three points as the Lightning defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-1 on Saturday at Amalie Arena.

Rookie defenseman Mikhail Sergachev had his third consecutive multi-point game and scored his third goal in the past two games. Yanni Gourde and Brayden Point also finished with a goal and two points.

Andrei Vasilevskiy came within 1:42 of pitching his second consecutive shutout before Jake Guentzel scored on the power play.

In the two meetings this season between Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh, the Lightning have outscored the Penguins 12-5. Antti Niemi has been in goal for Pittsburgh in both games, both coming in the second half of a back-to-back. Niemi has three starts this season for Pittsburgh, all coming in back half of consecutive games and has allowed 16 goals.

"I still felt OK. I think I made a few good saves but it wasn't close to enough," said Niemi, who is 0-3 this season with a 7.50 goals-against average and .797 save percentage. "I think I'm really close there."

The Lightning got on the board quickly with a power-play goal from Kucherov 1:36 into the game before Stamkos made it 2-0 at 14:16.

The game then quickly got out of hand when Vasilevskiy made a sliding stop to rob Carl Hagelin on the back door with 20.4 seconds left to keep it 2-0. On the next shift, Gourde scored his first of the season on a rebound chance with 0.2 seconds left on the clock.

"It's 2-1 going in to the room or it's 3-0," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "I thought that was a big part of the game. We are in the room, our chests are out and they are sitting over there rattled because 3-0 looks worse than 2-0 and it feels worse, too."

It didn't take long before it was 4-0 when Point scored 30 seconds into the second period. Anton Stralman added his first of the season at 5:58 and Kucherov scored his second of the game at 7:12 and the rout was on.

"We just simply didn't play hard enough or well enough in front of (Niemi)," Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said. "We win as a team, we lose as a team. Right now we're a flawed hockey team. We've got to shore up a lot of areas. I don't think it has anything to do with back-to-backs. I think it has to do with a mindset and willingness to play the game the right way."

Tampa Bay, meanwhile, is on a roll with a 7-1-1 record to start the season, matching the best record in franchise history through nine games accomplished during the 2003-04 Stanley Cup championship season. Since splitting a home-and-home with Florida to start the regular season, the Lightning are 6-0-1 and have won five consecutive home games.

"I look at our first two games of the season and then a short two weeks later how we're playing compared to then," Cooper said. "It's night and day. Guys have really bought in to the way we need to play, we are getting more and more consistency in to our game and that's probably what I'm most pleased with."

NOTES: Before the game, the Penguins announced they acquired C Riley Sheahan and a fifth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft from Detroit in exchange for RW Scott Wilson and a third-round pick in the 2018 draft. ... Tampa Bay RW Nikita Kucherov and C Steven Stamkos each extended their season-long scoring streak to nine games. They are the first pair of teammates to start the season on nine-game scoring streaks since Pavol Demitra and Doug Weight with St. Louis in 2001-02. ... Stamkos recorded his 113th career power-play goal to move past Vincent Lecavalier for most in franchise history. ... Pittsburgh scratched D Zach Trotman, RW Josh Archibald and Sheahan. ... Tampa Bay scratched D Andrej Sustr, RW J.T. Brown and C Cedric Paquette (upper body injury).