Down by two goals to a team that has had their number over the years, the Tampa Bay Lightning found a way to come back as they scored five straight goals to defeat the Minnesota Wild 6-3 to start their road trip. Darren Raddysh had three points, including his 20th goal of the season, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20-of-23 for league-leading 34th win of the season.
First Period
For much of the first period, the Lightning were skating in cement as the Wild controlled the pace of play. The early edge in offense was heavily in favor of the road team as they took advantage of some turnovers. An early penalty by Anthony Cirelli put one of the best road power play teams on the ice. With Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek in the line-up, the Wild showed why they’re scoring at 22% clip with the extra skater.
Brandon Hagel gave them a bit of an assist as he had the puck just outside of the Lightning defensive zone. His intention was to rag it back deeper into his own zone, but the puck was picked off and the Lightning were scrambling to recover. Mats Zuccarello eventually threw the puck towards the back post where it hit Ryan McDonagh’s skate and deflected past Vasilevskiy.
Shortly after the goal, a seemingly innocent scrum around the Lightning net escalated and Corey Perry faced off against Michael McCarron in a battle of trade deadline pick-ups. McCarron won on points as he bloodied Perry with an upper cut.
Minnesota had a couple of good shifts following the fight, aided by winning face-offs in the Lightning zone. A nice shift by the Brayden Point didn’t generate a shot, but they did give the defenders a bit of a breather and stabilized the game a little. From there, they slowly got their legs under them.
As time wound down in the period, the Lightning forecheck started to generate some chances. With just over two minutes to go in the period, Charle-Edouard D’Astous forced Kirill Kaprizov to throw a pass in front of his own net. The only player there to gather it in was Nikita Kucherov who had prime chance from the slot. Gustavsson was there to make his biggest stop of the games to that point.
They had a few more chances before Brandon Hagel was whistled for “abuse of officials” with 85 seconds left in the period. Gifted a power play, the Wild didn’t waste it. They won the face-off, worked the puck around the perimeter, and Brock Faber’s shot from the point eluded a screened Vasilevskiy to make it 2-0.
For the second time on the night, the Lightning followed a goal against with a fight. This time it was Scott Sabourin, inserted in the line-up for Oliver Bjorkstrand, who had a lengthy scrap with Nick Foligno that ended with a draw.
Second Period
The Point line came out with a really strong shift early in the middle frame and forced Gustavsson to make a couple of nice saves on Gage Goncalves. Five minutes into the period, Jonas Brodin was sent to the box and the Lightning’s power play got to work. They had a chance in the first period that they didn’t capitalize on, but outside of a couple of shots from Nikita Kucherov they didn’t generate much danger.
This time, they found pay dirt. Brandon Hagel slid into the role of playmaker on the left side as he faked a shot that caused Jake Middleton to drop to the ice. It freed up a seam for Brayden Point and Hagel put the pass right where Point needed it to snap a shot past Gustavsson.
After finally generating a little momentum, the Lightning tossed it aside as they took back-to-back penalties to set up a 5-on-3 for 1:40. Just what they needed on a night where the Wild cashed in on their first two penalties. That would not be the case with the two-skater advantage. Minnesota helped them by looking for the perfect goal instead of just getting shots on net.
Perhaps the Bolts took too big of a breath following the impressive penalty kill. Shortly after, Minnesota was able to breeze into the Lightning zone and Vlad Tarasenko’s shot caught D’Astous’ stick and deflected past Vasilevskiy to make it 3-1.
Instead of feeling sad for themselves, the Bolts went back to work. The Gourde line had a solid shift, then the Point line came out and won a few puck battles. Darren Raddysh flipped a shot on net that was deflected on the way in and Gustavsson was forced to kick back out into traffic. Jake Guentzel, who had been knocked to the ice, was in the right spot to sweep it into the net from his knees. Not a bad way to get to 300 goals in his career.
Coach Cooper pointed to that goal as the big moment in the game as it got the Bolts back into it. A few minutes later they were on the power play and Darren Raddysh put home his 10th power play goal of the season. It was his 20th of the season and he joins Victor Hedman and Dan Boyle as the only two Lightning defensemen to hit that mark in franchise history.
Minnesota pushed back, literally. With 1:18 left in the period, Bobby Brink shoved Raddysh into Vasilevskiy. Brink fired a shot on net and the rebound came to McCarron who banged it home. The Lightning challenged and won. Rule 69.1 for the win:
“If a defending player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by an attacking player so as to cause the defending player to come into contact with his own goalkeeper, such contact shall be deemed
contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, and if necessary a penalty assessed to the attacking player and if a goal is scored it would be disallowed.”
They didn’t get the penalty, but they did get the goal disallowed so it was on to the third period tied at three.
Third Period
Yanni Gourde almost had the goals ahead goal a few minutes into the period as he raced in on a semi-breakaway. His shot glanced off of Gustavsson before hitting the middle of the crossbar. As a team, the Lightning did a really solid job of grinding the Wild down. The forecheck was solid, they stayed behind the Wild forwards and didn’t allow them much room to operate.
Minnesota had a nice push with about eleven minutes to go in the game as they worked the puck around in the Lightning zone, but the defensive form held and didn’t allow a shot. For a defense that struggled with their coverage against Calgary in their prior game, they did a really good of staying in their shape against a much more talented club.
With less than five minutes to go in the game there was the sense that Minnesota might have been playing for a tie. They didn’t have that much zone time and almost no dangerous chances against Vasilevskiy. Tampa Bay wasn’t exactly stacking up the chances, but they were pushing the play. Eventually, it would pay off in a slightly unorthodox way.
As the clock ticked under three minutes to go, Charle-Edouard D’Astous tried a long stretch pass from his own goal line. It was directed in off the end boards and Gustavsson fumbled the puck. It trickled behind him into the crease and Erik Cernak, yes, Erik Cernak, who will never be confused with Teemu Selanne, was the first to the puck and put it off the goal camera.
The puck was in and out so fast that play continued, but a quick review confirmed a good goal. A Ryan Hartman cross-check to Pontus Holmberg’s face earned the Lightning a power play shortly after. John Hynes elected to pull Gustavsson to even it up, but the Minnesota coach’s boldness was not rewarded as Quinn Hughes lost an edge in the neutral zone. Nick Paul collected the puck and fed it to Hagel, who skated it into the empty net.
Hynes went back to the empty-net strategy with under a minute to go, but Minnesota was unable to get a shot off. A pass back to the point bounced over Brock Faber’s stick at the blue line. Pontus Holmberg jumped on it and was skating toward the empty net when Faber tripped him up. The officials awarded the goal to Holmberg and the Lightning had the 6-3 victory.
As the Buffalo Sabres were idle, the Lightning crept within two points of the division lead.
The Goals
Mats Zuccarello [14] (Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy) Power Play, 1-0
Brock Faber [15] (Vlad Tarasenko, Bobby Brink) Power Play, 2-0 Wild
Brayden Point [17] (Brandon Hagel, Darren Raddysh) Power Play, 2-1 Wild
Vlad Tarasenko [21] (Marcus Johansson, Ryan Hartman) 3-1 Lightning
Jake Guentzel [32] (Darren Raddysh, Gage Goncalves) 3-2 Wild
Darren Raddysh [20] (Nikita Kucherov, Jake Guentzel) Power Play, 3-3
Erik Cernak [2] (Charle-Edouard D’Astous, Andrei Vasilevskiy) 4-3 Lightning
Brandon Hagel [33] (Nick Paul) Power Play, Empty Net, 5-3 Lightning
Pontus Holmberg [11] (unassisted) Empty Net, Awarded Goal, 6-3 Lightning
Pretty Colors
#NHL Game Score Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-03-24: #GoBolts
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) March 24, 2026 at 10:30 PM
[image or embed]
