Was it the cleanest victory of the season for the Tampa Bay Lightning? No, but it was a victory. Thanks to Brandon Hagel’s three points and Andrei Vasilevskiy’s 32-save performance the Lightning were able to hold off a third period comeback by the Columbus Blue Jackets and pick up the 4-2 victory. Nikita Kucherov added to his league-leading points total with two assists while Anthony Cirelli and Nick Paul had two-point nights.
The Lightning weren’t necessarily sharp in the first period, but they played much better than they had against the Rangers and Islanders. When they did break down, Vasilevskiy was there to make the save as he stopped all nine shots in the opening frame.
Tampa Bay did generate 11 scoring chances in the first period at 5v5, but it was on the power play that they opened the scoring. Nick Paul was whacked in the face by Kent Johnson and the refs determined it was a double minor. The first unit didn’t really produce much through the first two minutes, but the second unit was able to establish a little presence towards the end of the first minor. Working the puck with patience, Brandon Hagel eventually fired it on net.
If you’ve ever listened to Phil Esposito you know he has a long-standing belief that the Lightning forwards tend to set up too close to the netminder and it prevents them from getting good looks at rebounds. Nick Paul kind of proved that point as he was set up in the slot around the hash marks instead of on the edge of the crease. That gave him room to collect the rebound and swat it past Elvis Merzlikins for his 14th goal of the season.
Nick Paul (Brandon Hagel, Darren Raddysh) Power Play, 1-0 Bolts
Second periods on the road have been an absolute conundrum for the Lightning this season as they entered the night with a -18 goal differential. After tonight they were -17. Improvement! The goal came off of a nifty backhand move by Anthony Cirelli, but the play was made by Brandon Hagel. Hagel had the puck near the boards and knew Ivan Provorov was coming over to put his about three rows deep with a hit. Hagel, held the puck and then was able to dish it to Cirelli who took advantage of the gap on the ice left in Provorov’s wake.
Anthony Cirelli (Brandon Hagel, Nick Paul) 2-0 Bolts
For the rest of the period the ice was tilted in Columbus’ favor for most of it, but the Lightning weren’t necessarily getting shelled. Yes, there were some extended stays in their zone, but for the most part they were able to work out of it and relieve the pressure for a few moments. Columbus had the edge in shots (14-11) and scoring chances (14-9), but the Lightning offense didn’t completely disappear as it has at times this season.
While their coverage was still a little off, they were staying engaged and were able to disrupt prime scoring chances with some nice stick checks and backchecks. Haydn Fleury, playing in his first game since New Year’s Eve, played well all night long. He and Darren Raddysh made nice defensive plays on two-on-ones throughout the period. Raddysh would also engage Damon Severson in his first career NHL fight later in the game.
The Bolts escaped the second period with the 2-0 and then extended it just 23 seconds into the third period as Steven Stamkos banged home a one-timer on the power play to give the Lightning the 3-0 lead. Not much to break down here. Hedman put it in the Captain’s wheelhouse and he powered it through Merzlikins.
Steven Stamkos (Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 3-0 Bolts
They would need all three goals as the Blue Jackets worked their way back into the game. Following an altercation between Provorov and Mikey Eyssimont that saw a five-minute major on Provorov reduced to a two-minute minor, Boone Jenner got the home team on the board as he redirected a shot from in front of the net.
Boone Jenner (Johnny Gaudreau, Zach Werenski) 3-1 Bolts
Jenner cut the lead to just one when he scored his second of the night three-and-a-half minutes later. Once again he was planted right in front of Vasilevskiy and was able to redirect a feed from Johnny Gaudreau, who had two assists on the night.
Boone Jenner (Johnny Gaudreau, Kirill Marchenko) Power Play, 3-2
The Lightning tightened up their game, blocking two shots and allowing just one on net down the stretch. With Merzlikins, who had 33 saves on the night, on the bench and the puck in the Lightning zone, Hagel forced a Blue Jacket to rush a pass that was picked off by Cirelli. He fed it Kucherov who found Hagel in the neutral zone and Hags flung it into the empty net to seal the game.
Brandon Hagel (Nikita Kucherov, Anthony Cirelli) Empty Net, 4-2
The Lightning didn’t play their best, but they found a way to win. With their top line pretty much neutralized, it was the Hagel, Paul, and Cirelli combination that came through. It also helped that Vasilevskiy posted a 2.04 GSAx according to Natural Stat Trick. Now they have two days off before taking on Boston on Tuesday with a chance to come home with a .500 record on the road trip.
