Lightning holds off Blue Jackets rally

COLUMBUS -- Brandon Hagel had a goal and two assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.

Nicholas Paul and Anthony Cirelli each had a goal and an assist, and Steven Stamkos scored for the Lighting (28-20-5), who have won nine of their past 12, but were coming off losses in their previous two games to the New York Islanders and New York Rangers by a combined score of 9-3. Nikita Kucherov had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves.

“It’s hard to win in this league, and when you walk into an NHL building and come away with two points, you take those and move on to the next game,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “You can pick apart any game you want, but the bottom line is we needed these points, we got them and let’s move on.”

Boone Jenner scored twice in the third period, and Johnny Gaudreau had two assists for the Blue Jackets (16-25-10), who have lost three of four. Elvis Merzlikins made 33 saves.

“That's a good hockey team,” Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski said of the Lightning. “They know how to win, and they've been through it before, especially their core guys. It's tough; we pushed hard.”

Paul gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 15:40 of the first period with a power-play goal from the slot on a rebound off a shot from Hagel.

The goal came on the second of a double minor to Kent Johnson for high-sticking.

“[Vasilevskiy] made some big saves early,” Stamkos said. “Once we scored that goal, a great goal on the power play by Paul, I think we got some life. We had a pretty good response after that.

“It kind of went south a little bit in the third, but after the two games we had coming out of the break, we needed two points.”

Cirelli extended it to 2-0 at 49 seconds of the second period, scoring on the backhand on a breakaway after a pass in the neutral zone by Hagel.

“I just tried to make a move and go upstairs, and luckily it went in,” Cirelli said.

Stamkos scored 23 seconds into the third period on the power play to make it 3-0 with a one-timer from the left circle.

Jenner cut it to 3-1 at 12:22, scoring at the right post on a cross-crease pass by Gaudreau before making it 3-2 at 15:50 with a power-play goal on the redirect.

“I liked the way we just stuck with it, and we knew we'd get rewarded if we didn't change anything,” Jenner said. “They started to go in in the third, but obviously we came up short and they were able to get the last one.”

Cooper was not surprised the Blue Jackets made a push.

“That’s a good young team,” he said. “They’ve got young legs and if you give them a chance to rush, they can get you.”

Hagel scored into an empty net with 48 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.

“We started strong, we finished strong,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. “We had a chance to come back in this game. If you were at the game tonight, that's the style of hockey we’re going to play. That's what we wanted to create and that's what we're creating.”

NOTES: Kucherov extended his point streak to seven games (five goals, nine assists). He leads the NHL with 89 points (33 goals, 56 assists). … Hagel has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in a six-game point streak. … Lightning defenseman Haydn Fleury returned after missing 14 games with an upper-body injury. He was plus-1 in 22:07 of ice time with two shots on goal and four blocked shots. … Blue Jackets forward Yegor Chinakhov left with an upper-body injury at 7:20 of the second period. He played one shift of 1:08 after being high-sticked by Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak at 5:22. Vincent said Chinakhov will likely be out Tuesday at the Ottawa Senators but is not sure after that. … Columbus defenseman Adam Boqvist played for the first time in four games after he took a puck to the mouth and lost several teeth while sitting on the bench against the Calgary Flames on Jan. 25. He was minus-1 with one shot in 21:42 and had two shots on goal.