Raw Charge
Summary
Not every win is going to be a masterpiece, but good teams find ways to pull out a win when they aren’t the best team on the ice. It took a Brandon Hagel hat trick, and several key saves by Andrei Vasilevskiy for the Tampa Bay Lightning to pull off a 5-3 win against the New York Islanders, but they did it. For the fourth game in a row the Lightning scored first, and for the fourth game in a row they picked up the win. It just wasn’t as dominating as the previous three. Coach Jon Cooper kept his 11/7 line-up with a small tweak as Scott Sabourin made his season debut in place of Jeff Viel. Sabourin played a typical game as he skated for 9:29, threw two hits, got into a fight, and had a nifty move that led to a good chance. He ended up with the fewest minutes of any forward as Coach Cooper leaned heavily on the Hagel, Anthony Cirelli, Jake Guentzel line, and they responded with three of the Lightning’s goals at even strength. Like they have done in wins against Washington, Philadelphia, and Minnesota, the Lightning got on the scoreboard first as Jake Guentzel picked off a pass in the offensive zone and snapped one past Ilya Sorokin. Ten minutes later, Hagel doubled up the lead with his first of the night when he outraced two Islanders to get to a Victor Hedman clear. Hagel finished got to the crease with a step on the defense and managed to push the puck past the goaltender. The period came to an end with the Lightning up by two, but the Islanders probably felt they should have been a little closer on the scoreboard after Bo Horvat was denied on a breakaway by Vasilevskiy, and he also caught the underside of the crossbar on a shot that was close enough to going in that the officials paused to make sure it didn’t go into the net. New York wouldn’t let the Lightning escape so easily in the second period. While Jake Guentzel would add the Lightning’s second power play goal of the season, the Islanders scored three times, including their own power play goal, to draw even. Two of the goals, one by Tony Angelo and one by Matthew Schaefer (who was the best player on the ice regardless of Hagel’s hat trick) were caused by traffic in front of the net as New York made it a focus of their game to take Vasilevskiy’s eyes away from him. The momentum was clearly with the home team as they continued to press for the go-ahead goal. They repeatedly beat the Lightning’s forecheck and carried enough speed through the neutral zone to push Lightning defenders back. Tampa Bay was forced to flip the puck out more often than they have for much of the season, and New York was there to push the puck right back into the zone. While the defense was struggling, Vasilevskiy was not. The turning point of the game came midway through the period when Anthony Duclair turned J.J. Moser, and sped around the back of the net. There was a sliver of space by the post to tuck the puck into, but Vasilevskiy’s legs were just long enough to make the stop. Sometimes the Lightning get away from just putting shots on net. They get a little pass happy and it leads to turnovers. So, of course, the game winner came on a play where Hagel just skated in and snapped one through a little screen. Sorokin, who finished with 21 saves (congrats on those that had the under 23.5) probably wanted that one back as it beat him on the short side. The Islanders (and their fans) were in a bit of shock. Pete DeBoer pulled his goaltender shortly after the goal, and the Lightning made quick work of taking advantage as Vasy cut off a dump-in and worked it to Ryan McDonagh. The defenseman got it to Kucherov at the blue line, and he made a really smart play. Rather than play it directly to Hagel, and risk a turnover as there was an Islander in the way, he bumped it back to Cirelli, who had a clear passing lane to Hagel. The pass connected and Hagel easily put it into the empty net. Tampa Bay will take their four-game winning streak to Madison Square Garden where the New York Rangers have a lot of questions in net all of a sudden. The Goals Jake Guentzel (2) [Unassisted] 1-0 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Jake Guentzel with 14:15 left in the 1st.NYI: 0 | TBL: 1#TBLvsNYI #Isles #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-10T23:57:55.380642Z Brandon Hagel (2) [Victor Hedman, Max Crozier] 2-0 Lightning Tampa Bay goal! Scored by Brandon Hagel with 04:18 left in the 1st. Assisted by Victor Hedman and Max Crozier. NYI: 0 | TBL: 2 #TBLvsNYI #Isles #GoBolts [image or embed] — NHL Goals ( @nhlgoals.bsky.social ) October 10, 2026 at 8:19 PM Tony DeAngelo (1) [Ondrej Palat], 2-1 Lightning New York goal!Scored by Tony DeAngelo with 13:33 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Ondrej Palat.NYI: 1 | TBL: 2#TBLvsNYI #Isles #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-11T00:52:24.812076Z Jake Guentzel (3) [Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Hagel] Power Play, 3-1 Lightning Power play goal for Tampa Bay!Scored by Jake Guentzel with 12:06 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel.NYI: 1 | TBL: 3#TBLvsNYI #Isles #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-11T01:01:48.205953Z Matthew Schaefer (1) [Tony DeAngelo, Ondrej Palat], 3-2 Lightning FIRST OF THE SEASON FOR MATTHEW SCHAEFER!! 🚨 — NHL (Bot) (@notnhl.bsky.social) 2026-10-11T01:08:54.178045Z Brayden Schenn (2) [Bo Horvat, Mattias Maccelli], Power Play, 3-3 Power play goal for New York!Scored by Brayden Schenn with 00:07 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Bo Horvat and Matias Maccelli.NYI: 3 | TBL: 3#TBLvsNYI #Isles #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-11T01:26:42.980325Z Brandon Hagel (3) [Max Crozier, Ryan McDonagh] 4-3 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Brandon Hagel with 01:44 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Max Crozier and Ryan McDonagh.NYI: 3 | TBL: 4#TBLvsNYI #Isles #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-11T02:32:22.925428Z Brandon Hagel (4) [Anthony Cirelli, Nikita Kucherov] Empty Net, 5-3 Empty net goal for Tampa Bay!Scored by Brandon Hagel with 01:23 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov.NYI: 3 | TBL: 5#TBLvsNYI #Isles #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-11T02:17:57.763845Z The Numbers Box Score Time On Ice – Lightning Natural Stat Trick