A wild first period saw Tampa Bay trailing by a goal through 20 minutes.
Things got off to a good start for the Lightning with Hedman notching his first goal of the year just over four minutes into the game. The play began with Seth Jones breaking up an odd man rush but in the scramble for the loose puck, Hedman spun around and fired a backhand shot through his legs that trickled through Elvis Merzlikins to open the scoring.
The Blue Jackets responded with three consecutive goals to grab a 3-1 lead. Just 17 seconds after Hedman's goal, Nick Foligno crashed the net and put home a rebound to tie the game. Midway through the period, Mikhail Grigorenko put Columbus in front, tapping home a loose puck in the crease after the initial shot from Kevin Stenlund snuck through Andrei Vasilevskiy's equipment. In the final minute of the period, Vladislav Gavrokiv snapped home a shot from the top of the slot to grow the Blue Jackets' lead to two.
A late slashing call on Nathan Gerbe gave Tampa Bay a power play chance before the end of the period, and Palat cashed in with a goal to get the Bolts within one at intermission. Brayden Point faked a shot from the right circle but instead passed to a wide-open Palat at the far post for the goal.
After a scoreless second period, Columbus scored the knockout blow early in the third. Zach Werenski capped one of the Jackets' strongest shifts of the night with a goal from inside the left circle to make it 4-2.
Eric Robinson added an empty net tally with less than two minutes remaining to put the game away.
Of concern to Tampa Bay are the apparent injuries to Erik Cernak and Mitchell Stephens suffered on Saturday. In the opening minutes, Cernak took a hard hit from Nick Foligno and moments later appeared to lose an edge before spinning out and crashing into the boards. Cernak ended up taking only five shifts. Four minutes into the third, Stephens got tangled up with a Columbus stick and wasn't able to put any weight on his right leg as he was helped to the bench.
The Bolts will now face some schedule uncertainty. COVID-19 concerns with the Hurricanes have next week's two-game set in Raleigh in doubt, so Tampa Bay plans to fly home on Saturday and wait for instructions from the League.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
TBL | 4:10 Victor Hedman (1) - Mitchell Stephens
CBJ | 4:27 Nick Foligno (3) - Cam Atkinson, Michael Del Zotto
CBJ | 10:03 Mikhail Grigorenko (1) - Kevin Stenlund, Nathan Gerbe
CBJ | 19:01 Vladislav Gavrikov (1) - Liam Foudy, Eric Robinson
TBL | 19:46 Ondrej Palat (3) - Brayden Point, Victor Hedman - PPG
2nd Period
No Scoring
3rd Period
CBJ | 6:34 Zach Werenski (1) - Alexandre Texier, Boone Jenner
CBJ | 18:12 Eric Robinson (1) - Riley Nash, Seth Jones - EN
