Raddysh has 3 points, Lightning defeat Blues

TAMPA -- Darren Raddysh had a goal and two assists for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-1 at Benchmark International Arena on Monday.

Jake Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov also each had two assists for the Lightning (20-13-3), who have won two straight games after losing their previous three. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.

"Think about it: Five periods ago we were down 3-0 to Carolina, five periods later we've got four more points than we had 48 hours ago," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said, referring to his team’s 6-4 comeback win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. "That was big for us, big for the guys, especially going into the (holiday) break. You hate going into these on a downer. Good all the way around and an early Christmas present for the coach."

Justin Faulk scored for the Blues (14-16-8), who were 2-0-1 in their previous three. Jordan Binnington made 13 saves.

"Tonight we played a good, well-structured team that got ahead on us and gave us nothing," St. Louis captain Brayden Schenn said. "So, we feel like we're building as a team, we're playing more consistently, but at the end of the day, tonight we weren't good enough."

Pontus Holmberg scored 21 seconds into the first period to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead. He redirected the puck past Binnington from the right hash marks after Raddysh sent it in from the right point.

"It was a good start for us. Whenever you can get a goal on the first shift, I think that's a momentum boost for all of us,” Guentzel said. "We had to build on the last two periods of the last game. That was our mindset coming in."

Raddysh then made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 9:12. He scored on a one-timer from the point off a pass from Kucherov, with his shot deflecting in off of Faulk at the left post.

Faulk cut it to 2-1 at 6:43 of the second period with a slap shot from just inside the blue line off a pass from Tyler Tucker with traffic in front.

"It was a good measuring stick for us,” Faulk said. “I think it showed us we've got more to go and we think so too. We took a lot of penalties (four). It makes it hard. They're going to find a way eventually it seems, so you want to try to limit them as much as possible."

It was Faulk’s 10th goal of the season and fourth in his past six games.

"He's been really good all year long," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said of the defenseman. "I thought tonight he was by far our best player. You want to make things happen when you're on the ice and he made a lot happen out there."

Anthony Cirelli extended the Tampa Bay lead to 3-1 at 8:01 when his redirection of a point shot by Raddysh skipped past Binnington.

Raddysh’s three points gave him 100 in the NHL (21 goals, 79 assists) and made him the second-fastest defenseman in Lightning history to reach the milestone (206 games), behind Dan Boyle (172).

"It's special. I'm fortunate to play in the NHL," Raddysh said. "Coming into the NHL pretty late ... it's a special moment for me."

Oliver Bjorkstrand stretched it to 4-1 with a power-play goal at 5:36 of the third period, snapping a shot from the left circle off Guentzel’s pass across the slot. It was Bjorkstrand’s 400th NHL point (178 goals, 222 assists).

"[In] tonight's game we saw what an elite team plays like for 60 minutes,” Montgomery said. “How they support pucks, how they battle for pucks and how they execute in all three zones with and without the puck."

NOTES: Raddysh had his fourth three-point game of the season. ... Guentzel has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in his past seven games. ... Vasilevskiy (35) tied Jake Oettinger of the Dallas Stars for the most regular-season wins in 2025. … Blues center Robert Thomas played his 500th NHL game. He had no shots on goal and was minus-2 in 17:43 of ice time.