Brandon Hagel provided three points and Jake Guentzel scored the game-winning goal in his 700th NHL game, but players up and down the Tampa Bay Lightning lineup played a role in Thursday's 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Goals, fights and timely saves allowed Tampa Bay to improve to 13-4-2 this season. The team now has consecutive road wins for the first time in 2026-27.
Their latest victory required a group effort on a night that forwards Yanni Gourde, Anthony Cirelli and Brayden Point as well as defenseman Erik Cernak were unavailable at Nationwide Arena.
“Some guys had to step up, some of our players who hadn’t been in the lineup for a while, and I thought everyone chipped in," Jon Cooper said postgame. "Obviously a big game out of Hags, Guentz and Kuch on the point side of things, but everybody chipped in. To come in here on a back-to-back, and we’ve had two of them now this week, I’m pretty impressed with what the guys did.”
Columbus possessed the puck in Tampa Bay's end to open the game, but it was the Lightning who got the 1-0 goal before the third minute on Thursday.
Defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous accepted a pass from Nikita Kucherov on the fly before firing a shot from the top of the circles, and Hagel buried the rebound 2:57 into the game.
Columbus earned numerous scoring chances across the first period and tied the game at the 12:20 mark on the power play, when Matthew Knies redirected a Kent Johnson pass from the slot.
Lightning forward Scott Sabourin responded by fighting Columbus' Matthew Olivier on the ensuing center-ice faceoff, a spirited bout that left both players bloodied. Then again two seconds later, teammate Jeff Viel fought Ryan Lomberg.
The visitors outshot the Blue Jackets 11-4 in the second period, and the Lightning felt those fights tilted the ice in their favor.
"After that, we just took over," D'Astous said. "It wasn’t a perfect game, but everyone did their best and I think we can be happy about the way we played overall.”
Cooper made note of the fights, too.
“For Sabby and Olivier, Lomberg and Viel, those are four legit tough customers. They’re team guys," the Lightning coach said. "They’re trying to do what they do for their team to give them a lift, and it definitely gave us a lift, for sure.”
Guentzel and Hagel then delivered a pair of goals in the third period to secure the road victory.
Guentzel snuck to open ice in the left faceoff circle and snapped a Hagel pass through Columbus goalie Jet Greaves just 66 seconds into the final frame. The 2-1 goal came in Guentzel’s 700th NHL game, and the forward wasn’t done contributing on his milestone night.
Guentzel returned the favor with just over 12 minutes remaining mere moments after the Blue Jackets had maintained pressure in the offensive zone for several minutes.
Kucherov forced a Columbus defenseman into a turnover in the right corner and got the puck to Guentzel atop the circle, where Guentzel pushed the puck to Hagel at the goal line. Hagel zipped the 3-1 goal inside the near post for his second goal and third point of the night.
“I thought we’d get in on the forecheck there. Kuch made a great play, Guentz made a great play and I was able to find the back of the net," Hagel said. "Moving our feet, supporting each other on the forecheck results in some good stuff.”
Tampa Bay only had 20 players available Thursday, and they needed every one of them.
Hagel’s three points led the Lightning, while Kucherov and Guentzel each finished with two-point performances. Still, Hagel was quick to credit the rest of his team, including Viel, Sabourin and goalie Dennis Hildeby.
“Back to backs are never going to be perfect. Sometimes you’re going to need your goalie, and he stood tall for us early in the first period, and then we were able to find one obviously. I thought he was great, and then you have guys in the room that are willing to do that (fight) to kind of wake up the bench," Hagel said.
"All around I just think it was a character win," he continued. "I think everyone contributed. It’s a back to back, you’ve got 11 forwards, we're banged up and everyone came out to play tonight, so there’s not much more you can ask for.”
Hildeby stopped all 13 shots he faced during the third period as Columbus pushed late and finished with 28 saves in the win. He's off to one of the best starts by a goalie in team history.
Hildeby improved to 4-0-1 this season, making him just the second goalie all-time to earn at least a standings point in each of his first five starts as a Bolt (Sean Burke, 3-0-2 from Oct. 15 - Nov. 22, 2005).
“I thought we really gamed one out," Cooper said. "They kind of jumped on us in that first 10 minutes, and then four big boys went at it and I thought for us it gave us a big boost … It was huge for us to score first, and I know they eventually tied it but we never really had to chase it … We get the quick one in the third and now they’ve got to chase it. We got another one and the Beast (Hildeby) took over at the end and made some big saves for us.”
Tampa Bay now returns home to host the Detroit Red Wings in a 7 p.m. game Saturday at Benchmark International Arena.
Game Notes:
- Hagel became the fourth player in Lightning history to score multiple goals in consecutive days, joining Nikita Kucherov (2x, last: Dec. 27-28, 2025), Simon Gagne (March 25-26, 2011) and Denis Savard (Feb. 23-24, 1995).
- Guentzel became the third Lightning player to score a goal in their 700th NHL game, joining Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier.
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
1. Brandon Hagel, TBL (2 goals, assist)
2. Jake Guentzel, TBL (GWG, assist)
3. Dennis Hildeby, TBL (28 saves)
