Raw Charge
Summary
Already missing Brayden Point due to an injury, the Tampa Bay Lightning took on the Columbus Blue Jackets without Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak, and Yanni Gourde on Thursday to complete their back-to-back. They may have been short-handed on the roster, but they still had Brandon Hagel. The all-gas, no-brakes forward scored twice to lead the Bolts to a 3-1 victory over a determined, but snake-bit Columbus team. Nikita Kucherov picked up two more assists while Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist. Dennis Hildeby picked up another win as he stopped 28-of-29 shots, his lone concession coming on a Columbus power play goal by Matthew Knies. As one might imagine, Columbus was the team dictating the pace of play at the drop of the puck. The majority of the first three minutes was spent in the Lightning zone with Dennis Hildeby tested often. While he was turning aside shots, the offense went with quality over quantity. A nice transition through the neutral zone led to a shot from Charle-Edouard D’Astous. Jet Greaves made the initial save, but Brandon Hagel was left unmarked as he skated through the slot and he easily slid the rebound under the goaltender. With a bit of a make-shift line-up, the Bolts were trying to simplify their game as they were content to chip a lot of pucks out of the zone, get shots on the net when they had the opportunity, and keep things pushed to the outside in their own zone. Playing with the lead allowed them to not have to worry about forcing things, and despite Columbus having the puck the majority of the time, there wasn’t too much danger coming from their attempts. That was until Ilya Mikheyev got his stick up on Zach Werenski and was sent to the box. Columbus doesn’t have a lethal power play, but then again, no one is waxing poetic about the Lightning penalty kill. Once again, they failed to keep the puck out of the net as Matthew Knies had his stick on the ice as Kent Johnson slung a pass down to the crease. For the twelfth time in thirteen games, Knies scored against the Bolts. Having not scored since October 1, the former Maple Leaf likely had this game circled on his calendar as he looks to get his season going again. A couple of fights followed the goal as Scott Sabourin took on Mathieu Olivier. Right after that, Jeff Viel and Ryan Lomberg had more of a wrestling match than a fight, but still got the stick taps from their teammates. Things settled down on the ice and it was fairly low event hockey for much of the period. Columbus had Hildeby scrambling in his crease after a weird bounce off the boards caught the netminder on the backfoot, but a timely blocked shot by D’Astous kept the game level. While they weren’t able to tickle the back of the twine in the middle frame, the Tampa Bay Lightning had a really solid second period. They had the puck on their sticks a lot more and generated plenty of shots through twenty minutes. Greaves was a big reason things stayed level at one goal as robbed Hagel on another rebound attempt early in the period. Hagel thought he had his second of the night late in the period when he deflected a puck past the netminder, but it was quickly waved off as his stick made contact well above the crossbar. On the whole, the Bolts had eleven shots and six high-danger chances in the period. In their end, they held Columbus to just five shots on goal and three Grade A chances. Why does Coach Jon Cooper start the Z.I.P (Zemgus, Ilya, Pontus) Line almost every period? Well, the third period against the Columbus Blue Jackets was a perfect example. Zemgus Girgensons wins the opening face-off and the pucks is in the zone where they spend almost a minute cycling the puck. They don’t score, but the Lightning were able to change lines and get Jake Guentzel on the ice. He sets up in the slot and snaps home a shot that Greaves gets most, but not all, of and it trickled behind him and over the goal line. Down a goal, Columbus made a nice push (and caught some iron), but much like in the first period, their best offensive push ended up with them digging the puck out of their own net. After withstanding a sustained barrage of shot attempts (most from distance) the Lightning got the puck into the zone and Brandon Hagel swept home a pass from Kucherov to beat Greaves from a tough angle. It figures that after having a couple of Grade A chances stopped, Hagel would pick up his second of the night on a low-percentage shot. Even with a power play, Columbus struggled to get much on the net with only two high-danger chances credited to them. Columbus was able to put some pressure on him late with Greaves on the bench, but he wouldn’t be deterred, making key stops on Werenski and Knies with less than a minute to go in the game. The Goals Brandon Hagel (12) [Charle-Edouard D’Astous, Nikita Kucherov] 1-0 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Brandon Hagel with 17:03 left in the 1st. Assisted by Charle-Edouard D'Astous and Nikita Kucherov.CBJ: 0 | TBL: 1#TBLvsCBJ #CBJ #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-13T00:31:35.038117Z Matthew Knies (3) [Kent Johnson, Sean Monahan] Power Play, 1-1 Power play goal for Columbus!Scored by Matthew Knies with 07:40 left in the 1st. Assisted by Kent Johnson and Sean Monahan.CBJ: 1 | TBL: 1#TBLvsCBJ #CBJ #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-13T00:41:36.822200Z Jake Guentzel (11) [Brandon Hagel, John Carlson] 2-1 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Jake Guentzel with 18:54 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Brandon Hagel and John Carlson.CBJ: 1 | TBL: 2#TBLvsCBJ #CBJ #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-13T02:22:22.524121Z Brandon Hagel (13) [Jake Guentzel, Nikita Kucherov] 3-1 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Brandon Hagel with 12:19 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Jake Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov.CBJ: 1 | TBL: 3#TBLvsCBJ #CBJ #GoBolts — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-13T02:23:09.969995Z The Numbers #NHL Game Score Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-11-12:#GoBolts — HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) 2026-11-13T02:47:57.483Z Box Score Time On Ice – Lightning