On a night the Tampa Bay Lightning celebrated head coach Jon Cooper’s 1,000th game as their head coach, his players honored him with a textbook win over the best team in the league as Brandon Hagel’s snapshot from the right circle in the third period snapped a 2-2 tie with the Colorado Avalanche. Anthony Cirelli added an empty net goal to make the final 4-2 as the Lightning continued their torrid start to the 2026 calendar year with their eighth win in a row.
While injuries have kept both sides from being at their full capacity, fans were still treated to a game played at a high pace. While there was space on the ice at times, there was precious little time for players to take their time to make decisions. Despite the two best offenses in the league matching up, defense was the focus for much of the game.
With a couple of days off, the Lightning came out skating well, matching the Avalanche up-and-down the ice. Tampa Bay made a concerted effort to not let Colorado set up their cycle game in the offensive zone. By stepping up in the neutral zone they managed to bottle up the Av’s rush while letting them push back on the visitor’s defense.
The Bolts were able to take that territorial advantage and rack up a few chances against Scott Wedgewood. The best look came from Gage Goncalves who had a step on the defense. His shot beat Wedgewood under the pads, but the puck betrayed the Lightning and rolled past the post on the wrong side.
Despite an early power play opportunity, Colorado failed to throw much rubber at Andrei Vasilevskiy over the first 20 minutes, registering just seven shots off of six scoring chances. Tampa Bay had the slightly better run of play and picked up a power play of their own when Nikita Kucherov was tripped off. With time bleeding off of the clock, Jake Guentzel had some space in front of the goaltender and was able to rip it up and over and into the net.
Stealing a goal in the final minute of the first period gave the Bolts a little breathing room heading into the second period. Something they needed because the Avalanche found that cycle game the Lightning denied them early in the night. The pressure built and just over three minutes into the middle frame, the visitors found the equalizer.
Vasilevskiy, who finished with 31 saves on the night, kicked out a rebound to his left. The puck trickled out just beyond his reach. Zakhar Bardajov pounced on the puck and cut behind the net. With Vasy out of the crease, there was enough space for Bardajov to backhand a pass to Parker Kelly in front of the net for a fairly easy goal.
The Lightning had a second shot with the extra skater, and despite some solid puck movement and opportunities, they couldn’t beat Wedgewood. As the penalty expired, Cale Makar had the puck in the Lightning zone and fed it over to Brock Nelson. Erik Cernak was in a fairly decent position and pushed Nelson to the outside. The veteran forward was forced to fling a shot towards the net. It wasn’t a hard shot to begin with, but it clipped off of Cernak’s stick and fluttered over Vasilevskiy’s outstretched glove. Just like that it was 2-1 Colorado.
The play equalized with both teams getting a chance here and there, but both defenses were doing their job. It would be the Lightning’s energy line that scored the tide-turning goal. Yanni Gourde, Pontus Holmberg, and Zemgus Girgensons were tasked primarily with shutting down Nathan MacKinnon’s line.
The trio spent 12:16 on the ice and played things to pretty much a draw. In the Lightning’s eyes, that was a win. They took it to another level with under four minutes to go when they kept the puck in the zone in a typical Gourde-line like shift. Yanni spun into some space and fed the puck to the crease. Zemgus Girgensons made a veteran move to slip in front of Makar at the last second to get inside position and deflect the puck home.
Heading into the third period tied with the best team in the league and playing them level was a good spot for the Lightning to be in. It was even better 8:31 in when Hagel took a feed from Max Crozier and fired a shot in a goal-scorer’s spot in the upper corner. Simply a perfect shot. A lot of credit to Nikita Kucherov, who picked up his second assist of the night on the play, for fighting hard for the puck along the boards and then having just enough of a reach to poke the puck to Crozier.
Colorado kept pushing and pushing, but the defense and Vasilevskiy shunted the offense to the side. The shots piled up, but most came from distance, and the Lightning players in front of the net scrambled to clear away any second chances.
With Wedgewood on the bench during the final two minutes of the game, Anthony Cirelli was able to seal things off with an empty-net goal. Colorado’s push over the last period distorted the stats a bit as they were credited with 12 scoring chances and 27 shot attempts in the third period.
In the end it was a solid win for the Lightning as they excelled at even strength, getting contributions from all four lines, on the power play where they went 1-for-2, and on the penalty kill where they went 2-for-2. They stuck to their game plan all night long and built their offense out of strong defense – two hallmarks of a Coach Cooper team.
The win vaults them back into first place for now. Now they’ll have a few days off before embarking on five-game road trip.
The Goals
Jake Guentzel [19] (Nikita Kucherov, Darren Raddysh) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning
"Shoots, SCORRREEE!!! GUENTZEL!!!" Guentzel roofs a power play goal! #COLvsTBL 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:16 PM
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Parker Kelly [8] (Bardakov, Solovyov)
Colorado goal! Scored by Parker Kelly with 16:38 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Zakhar Bardakov and Ilya Solovyov. Tampa Bay: 1 Colorado: 1 #COLvsTBL #GoBolts #GoAvsGo
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:26 PM
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Brock Nelson [19] (Cale Makar) 2-1 Avalanche
Colorado goal! Scored by Brock Nelson with 10:29 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Cale Makar. Tampa Bay: 1 Colorado: 2 #COLvsTBL #GoBolts #GoAvsGo
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:35 PM
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Zemgus Girgensons [6] (Yanni Gourde, Pontus Holmberg) 2-2
"SCORREEE!!! GIRGENSONS!!!!!" Girgy on the doorstep to tie the game! #COLvsTBL 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 8:54 PM
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Brandon Hagel [20] (Max Crozier, Nikita Kucherov) 3-2 Lightning
"SCORREEE!!! HAGEL!!!!!" What a shot by Hagel to take the lead! #COLvsTBL 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 9:37 PM
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Anthony Cirelli [12] (Brandon Hagel, Darren Raddysh) Empty Net, 4-2 Lightning
"CIRELLI!!!!! DAGGER!!! 4-2 LIGHTNING!" 🎯 A Vasy save at one end and an insurance goal at the other end! #COLvsTBL 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 9:54 PM
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Pretty Colors!
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-01-06 #GoBolts
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) January 6, 2026 at 9:57 PM
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