The Backcheck: Bolts sweep back-to-back games, win streak hits seven games

The Tampa Bay Lightning remain one of the league’s best teams after sweeping this weekend’s back-to-back on the road.

Tampa Bay overcame an early deficit on Friday to beat their Atlantic Division opponent Detroit Red Wings, and they followed the effort with Saturday’s dominant victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

The Lightning are now 16-7-2 and sit atop the Eastern Conference thanks to seven consecutive wins, which ties the Minnesota Wild for the league’s longest active win streak prior to Saturday’s evening games.

“It’s pretty congested in the Eastern Conference, so we’ve had to go on this run just to put ourselves in a little bit of breathing room, which you don’t have in this Eastern Conference,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s really tight, so we have to make up for our slow start.”

They close a three-game road trip with Tuesday’s 7 p.m. visit to play the New York Islanders.

Lightning win streak hits six games with Friday win in Detroit

The Tampa Bay Lightning opened their weekend back-to-back with a comeback victory in Detroit on Friday afternoon and improved the season record to 15-7-2

Despite the Red Wings taking a 1-0 advantage midway through the first period, Tampa Bay rattled off the next three goals to steal the lead. They never relented that advantage in a 6-3 victory, one coach Cooper called a group effort.

"That was a pretty complete team effort,” Cooper said, “and I feel like for the most part when I stand up here after these games, that’s what I’m saying.”

The win extended the team’s win streak to a season-best six games. The Red Wings scored first on J.T. Compher’s shot from the right faceoff circle 11:29 into the game, but Tampa Bay stacked goals together to overcome the early deficit.

Defenseman Darren Raddysh supplied the game-tying goal for the visitors, depositing a one-timer from atop the offensive zone with 2:53 left in the period during a Lightning power play.

The score came on a 100.13 mph slap shot, which marked the hardest shot of any goal scored in the NHL this season.

“I think we’re feeling good,” Raddysh said of Tampa Bay’s power-play group. “We’ve had a lot of chances the last couple games and we’ve had the looks, and they just haven’t went in. Sometimes you need a good break, and we kind of got one there going five-hole from the point. We’ve got to keep at it and continue that tomorrow.”

Tampa Bay built on the offense early in the middle frame—it took forward Gage Goncalves only 34 seconds into the second period to give the Lightning their first lead of the game.

Nick Paul chipped the puck to Oliver Bjorkstrand, who kicked it into the Red Wings’ zone. Goncalves chased down two Detroit defensemen, stick-lifted Albert Johansson and slipped his shot through the legpads of goalie John Gibson to make it 2-1 Lightning.

Forward Yanni Gourde expanded the visitors’ lead with another quick goal, this one coming 3:01 into the period. Gourde fired several rebound attempts on net, scoring his fourth goal of the season on a chip-shot over a sprawled out Gibson.

“After the first period we didn’t really like what we did, and we stuck to our gameplan in the second and third and the results came, and we finished off strong,” Raddysh said postgame.

The Red Wings cut the Lightning lead back to a single goal in short order, this goal coming 12 seconds after Gourde’s tally. Forward Michael Rasmussen potted a loose puck laying in the blue paint after Compher’s shot hit the crossbar.

And just when fans thought a wild second period was over, the teams traded goals again.

Gourde’s second goal of the period made it 4-2 Lightning with 3:51 remaining, this one coming when a loose puck escaped the Detroit crease and found Gourde for a slap-shot goal from the top of the left circle.

Detroit pulled within a goal of the visitors once again via Dylan Larkin’s goal late in the second period, but the Lightning were the only team to score in the final frame.

“They came out flying in the first,” Gourde said. “But we made some adjustments, and we looked much better in the second and the third.”

Jake Guentzel redirected a point shot by Raddysh with 7:23 remaining in the game for a 5-3 lead, and Brandon Hagel extended his goal-scoring streak to four games with an empty-net goal.

Raddysh led all Lightning players with three points, while Guentzel joined Hagel and Nikita Kucherov with two points each.

Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves, finishing with a .917 save percentage in his sixth consecutive win.

Cooper credited Vasilevskiy for denying the rush chances for Detroit in the first period and then said the skaters took over in the second and third period.

“I thought Gourdo’s line was big and Cirelli’s line, and everybody just contributed. Big goal from (Goncalves)..Another responsible game for the fellas. Big Cat (Vasilevskiy) kept us in the first period, and we took it from there.”

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

1. Darren Raddysh, TBL (Goal, 2 assists)
2. Yanni Gourde, TBL (2 goals)
3. Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (33-save win)

Hagel’s goal streak secures back-to-back sweep on Saturday

The Lightning used a masterclass first period and another big game from Hagel to extend their season-best win streak to seven games on Saturday, beating the New York Rangers 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.

Saturday’s win was perhaps the team’s best effort of the season. The Lightning outshot the Rangers 35 to 13, the fewest shots allowed by any NHL team in 2025-26.

Cooper said the win was about maintaining momentum from Friday’s victory.

“I thought we had a really good third yesterday, and we just brought it right into today,” Cooper said. “These back to backs are tough, we knew they had it too, and they had a goalie that was playing both games. So we thought hopefully we could jump on them early, and fortunately we did.”

The Lightning didn’t allow the host Rangers to send a shot on goal until the midway point of the first period, and the visitors followed that up by securing the game-opening goal.

Hagel pushed his goal streak to five games on the 1-0 tally for the Lightning, which came 10:53 into play. Hagel’s shot from the top of the circles hit the skate of Rangers defenseman Carson Soucy before heading into the New York net.

Tampa Bay held an 11-2 advantage in shots on goal through 20 minutes of hockey and limited the Rangers to a final 13 total shots in the game.

“When you just buy into the game plan in the D-zone and what we talked about and how we’re going to protect the house and protect our D-zone and you continue to do that, you’re just going to weather the storm,” Hagel said. “And I thought we did an incredible job at that. Tough building to play in, and we were able to do that.”

Hagel and the Lightning built on the lead in the second period.

Kucherov’s pass from the defensive zone sent Hagel on a breakaway chance, one that New York goalie Igor Shesterkin stopped before Hagel buried his own rebound at the right post with 11:03 left in the middle frame. The goal was Hagel’s 15th since Oct. 26, most in the NHL.

The Rangers halved the Lightning lead late in the period, as Rangers forward JT Miller won a battle at the Lightning net and tapped home a pass from Adam Fox near the blue paint to make it 2-1 with 2:29 remaining.

Despite the late goal against, it didn’t take the Lightning long to restore their two-goal advantage in the third period.

Paul made it 3-1 just 2:02 after play resumed—Kucherov took the puck in the right corner of the offensive zone and fed a pass to Paul in the crease, where the latter chipped a shot over the leg pad of Shesterkin.

“The one thing I’ve learned playing with Kuch is, even if he’s not looking at you, even if it looks like there’s no hole, he’s going to find a way,” Paul said of the goal. “I just kind of opened up in front of the net and he made a great pass, think it went his legs, and then from there I was in tight so I’m just trying to lift it over the pad six inches, and it ended up going into the net.”

Guentzel ended the day with an empty-net goal to make it 4-1 Tampa Bay in the final minute.

Kucherov and Raddysh co-led all players with matching three-assist days, and Tampa Bay goalie Jonas Johansson made 12 saves for his fifth win in seven starts this season.

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

1. Nikita Kucherov, TBL (3 assists)
2. Brandon Hagel, TBL (2 goals)
3. Darren Raddysh, TBL (3 assists)