Jake Guentzel broke a third-period tie with a goal in his 700th NHL game as the Tampa Bay Lightning closed out their four-game road trip with a 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.
Brandon Hagel posted two goals and an assist while Nikita Kucherov added two helpers as the Lightning finished the trip 3-1-0 and improved to 6-1-1 in their last eight. Guentzel added an assist after his game-winning goal for a two-point night.
Backup goaltender Dennis Hildeby, making a rare start to complete Tampa Bay’s back-to-back set, stopped 28 of 29 shots. Erik Cernak and Anthony Cirelli did not dress for the Lightning after getting hurt in Wednesday’s 8-3 win at Buffalo.
Playing with assistant Don Granato behind the bench in place of Rick Bowness (illness), Columbus received its goal from Matthew Knies while Jet Greaves made 25 saves.
The Lightning went ahead 1-0 on a similar goal from the Sabres contest. Just under three minutes in, Charle-Edouard D’Astous forced a rebound with a shot from the high slot and Hagel cleaned it up for his 12th tally.
On the game’s first power play, the Blue Jackets’ Kent Johnson settled down a puck and flipped a pass into the low slot. Knies angled his stick and knotted it at 12:20.
The matchup took a nasty turn immediately thereafter with back-to-back fights. Tampa Bay’s Scott Sabourin and Mathieu Olivier fought in a heavyweight bout. Two seconds after they went to the box, the Blue Jackets’ Ryan Lomberg took on Jeffrey Viel in a tilt.
Greaves was at his best in the second with a point-blank save on Hagel in the first five minutes, but Hagel appeared to net his second goal with 4:42 remaining. However, an official review showed the forward scored with a high stick and the goal was disallowed in the scoreless frame.
Guentzel scored the winner from the left circle as it rolled by Greaves at 1:06 of the third. Hagel tallied for the second time 6 1/2 minutes later for a 3-1 lead that the Lightning used to close their road swing with two points.