Jake Guentzel picked a fitting night for a milestone, snapping a third-period tie with the kind of goal that can tilt a game in a hurry as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 on Thursday night.
The goal came in Guentzel’s 700th NHL game, and he didn’t stop there. He finished with a goal and an assist, while Brandon Hagel powered the Lightning with two goals and an assist. Nikita Kucherov chipped in two assists as Tampa Bay wrapped up its four-game road trip at 3-1-0 and moved to 6-1-1 over its last eight.
Tampa Bay also got a steady night from backup goaltender Dennis Hildeby, who was making a rare start to finish the back end of the club’s back-to-back. He turned aside 28 of 29 shots. The Lightning were without Erik Cernak and Anthony Cirelli after both were hurt in Wednesday’s 8-3 win at Buffalo.
Columbus, with assistant Don Granato running the bench in place of Rick Bowness because of illness, got its lone goal from Matthew Knies. Jet Greaves stopped 25 shots in defeat.
The Lightning struck first with a goal that looked a lot like one from the Buffalo game. Less than three minutes in, Charle-Edouard D’Astous fired from the high slot, forced a rebound and Hagel finished it off for his 12th of the season.
The Blue Jackets answered on their first power play. Kent Johnson controlled the puck and sent a pass into the low slot, where Knies got his stick on it and tied the game at 12:20.
Then the game got chippy in a hurry. Back-to-back fights broke out, with Tampa Bay’s Scott Sabourin and Mathieu Olivier trading punches in a heavyweight bout. Two seconds after they headed to the penalty box, Columbus’ Ryan Lomberg and Jeffrey Viel squared off in another tilt.
Greaves kept Columbus alive in the second period, including a point-blank stop on Hagel in the opening five minutes. Hagel later appeared to score again with 4:42 left in the period, but the goal was wiped out after review showed he put it in with a high stick, leaving the frame scoreless.
Guentzel finally broke the tie 1:06 into the third, sending a shot from the left circle that slipped past Greaves. Hagel added his second of the night about 6 1/2 minutes later to make it 3-1, and Tampa Bay rode that cushion to the finish.
In Other News...
Blue Jackets Suddenly Face Bench Uncertainty On Game Night
Rick Bowness was absent from the Blue Jackets game against the Tampa Bay Lightning because of an illness, leaving Columbus to adjust on the fly for a night when the bench looked a little different than usual. In his second season with the club, Bowness has brought plenty of experience to a young roster, and his presence behind the bench is usually part of the teams nightly routine.
Don Granato handled the coaching duties in Bowness place, giving Columbus a different voice in a game that already carried the usual stakes of an Eastern Conference matchup. For a team trying to keep its footing, any late change behind the bench adds another layer to manage, especially when it involves the NHLs oldest head coach being out of action on game night. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Suddenly Need Answers On Sean Monahan
Sean Monahans night ended early in Tampa, and the Blue Jackets suddenly have another injury situation to sort through. The veteran forward had one assist in 9:58 of ice time before leaving the game against the Lightning with an upper-body injury, a development that came in a 3-1 loss Columbus could ill afford as it tried to keep pace.
The immediate concern now is how long Monahan might be unavailable and what it means for a lineup that already had to adjust on the fly. Columbus did not have him back for the rest of the game, and with the team looking for stability up front, any absence from a center with his experience would force another round of shuffling at a time when the Blue Jackets need answers more than they need another question. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Had No Answer For What Changed Everything Late
The Blue Jackets spent much of the night trying to keep pace with Tampa Bay in a game that had plenty of whistles, penalties and physical edge, but the Lightnings top line kept tilting the ice when it mattered most. Columbus managed one goal in a 3-1 loss, yet the bigger concern came when Sean Monahan left with an upper-body injury, a setback that changed the feel of the game for a team already fighting to stay composed through the rougher stretches.
Brandon Hagel was at the center of Tampa Bays surge, striking twice as the Lightning found a way to break through late and put the result out of reach. For Columbus, the final stretch was less about missed chances than a lack of answers once the game turned, and the injury to Monahan only added another layer of concern to a night that had already become increasingly difficult to manage. [Read more 🡒]