The Backcheck: Wednesday’s energized start pushes Bolts win streak to five games

The Tampa Bay Lightning utilized their best start of the 2025-26 season—and one of the best in franchise history—on Wednesday night against the Calgary Flames to push their win streak to five games.

Brandon Hagel’s goal 39 seconds into the game gave the team its quickest lead to start a game this season, and it was only the beginning of a game that ended with four goals in the opening 10:01 of the game.

Tampa Bay leaned on its early lead, cruising to a 5-1 victory over the Flames and improving to 14-7-2 this season. They remain the Atlantic Division’s top team after Wednesday.

“It feels good obviously, getting in a little bit of flow,” Declan Carlile said of the team’s multiple goals in the first period, “and you don’t want it to end. But it’s hockey, it’s 60 minutes and it’s going to end eventually, so it was nice to get out early, and it was good.”

Hagel’s 12th goal of the season was only his latest offensive splash, as he now holds nine points over his previous three games.

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy denied Jonathan Huberdeau alone in the crease to spring his team on a rush chance, one that ended with Hagel’s shot from the left faceoff circle ripping into the top right corner of the net for the 1-0 tally.

The goal was only the first chapter of a book filled with early offense for Tampa Bay on Wednesday. It was 2-0 Lightning less than 90 seconds into the game.

Forward Nick Paul collected the puck in the left corner of the offensive zone and dished a pass to defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous at the point, where the latter’s one-timed slap shot found the net 1:26 into play.

Zemgus Girgensons extended the Lightning lead again just before the game’s sixth minute—Girgensons rushed down the left boards and sent a pass toward the net, where the puck caromed in off a Flames defender’s stick to make it 3-0.

The goal was Girgensons’ fifth of the season and 200th NHL point, making him only the third Latvia-born player to reach 200 points in the league. The goal forced Calgary into a goaltending change, but the offensive onslaught wasn’t over.

Declan Carlile welcomed Flames goalie Devin Cooley to the game by scoring his first goal of the season, burying a slap shot from the left circle through the legpads of Cooley at the 10:01 mark.

Tampa Bay’s 4-0 lead through 10:01 of game time was the team’s third-fastest four goals to open a game in franchise history.

“It was just playing simple hockey, just direct hockey, and we got those four quick,” Girgensons said postgame. “After that it was kind of an interesting game with the power plays and the PK, but definitely good to start that way."

Vasilevskiy wasn’t busy through the opening 20 minutes of hockey with five saves, but it was his stop on Huberdeau in the game’s first minute that allowed for such a productive start.

“Phenomenal,” Carlile said of Vasilevskiy. “I mean, best goalie in the world. Obviously I'm not here all the time, but I watch a lot of games and been watching for a long time, and, yeah, he's one of a kind.”

The Lightning goalie ended with 32 saves on 33 shots faced and is now 5-0-0 with a .970 save percentage over his last five starts. He was particularly busy in the third period, stopping 18 Calgary shots on goal in a period that the home team was outshot 19-4.

"In the end, you know, Calgary pushed,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the win. “(They're a) proud team, and we just, we didn't manage the puck very well. And like I said, didn't love our third (period)...The boys defended, and if we made a mistake, Vas was there for us. You look at summing the whole thing up, it's another solid victory for us at home. And now we gotta go see if we can do this on the road."

Calgary scored its lone goal 1:04 into the third period when Joel Farabee scored on a shot from the right circle with the Flames shorthanded.

Nikita Kucherov finished a 2-on-1 with 5:37 remaining in the game to restore Tampa Bay’s four-goal advantage. Kucherov’s two points co-led the Lightning in scoring alongside Hagel and Jake Guentzel (two assists).

Tampa Bay will take Thursday off for Thanksgiving before opening a three-game road trip with Friday’s 12 p.m. game at Little Caesars Arena against the Detroit Red Wings.

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

• Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (32-save win)

• Brandon Hagel, TBL (Goal, assist)
• Nikita Kucherov, TBL (Goal, assist)