Raw Charge
Summary
Victor Hedman had one goal last season. He’s already matched that total just seven games into the season. His first of the year came at an opportune time as the Lightning’s captain scored at the 2:07 mark of overtime to give the Lightning the 4-3 victory. Brandon Hagel scored twice and Ilya Mikheyev notched his 100th career goal in the victory as Tampa Bay ran their home record to 4-0 on the young season. The first period wasn’t the cleanest twenty minutes of the season for the Lightning as Seattle recorded the first goal roughly five minutes into the game when Frederic Gaudreau forced a turnover from Emil Lilleberg behind the net and Ryan Winterton backhanded a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy. Early on, Seattle had their looks (they had five high-danger chances in the first ten minutes). However, it was a much better paced period from the Lightning, especially as the period went on, after a rather flat effort from them against the Rangers. The entire team was skating with intention and playing physical (they were credited with 12 hits). There was also a bit of a scramble to the lines as Coach Cooper cycled several different combinations among the top six. Dominic James’ return to action saw him skate mostly with Conor Geekie and Jeff Viel, but he also saw some time with Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel and drew a penalty. While the power play struggled once again (their only shot and quality chance came from Pontus Holmberg), they did seem to draw a little energy from it and controlled play for much of the second half of the period, outshooting the Kraken 9-4 over the final ten minutes. They found the equalizer when Point slid a clever little pass to Hagel, who fired his first shot at Phillip Grubauer’s chest, but then swept the rebound up and into the net for his fifth goal of the season. The Bolts finished with 16 shots on goal off of 23 attempts. Shots were coming from everywhere, but especially from the blueline as the defensemen were credited with 10 shot attempts. Something the Lightning have yet to do in a game so far this season was to take the lead after trailing. That changes in the second as yes, you guessed it, Brandon Hagel scored again. His sixth goal of the season came off of a drop pass from Anthony Cirelli, who drove to the net to clear a lane. Hagel snapped it over Grubauer’s glove to make it 2-1. Both teams traded chances through a fairly even period, and both teams had multiple chances on the power play, but failed to score. While the extra skater woes continued for the Bolts, they did have some solid chances, especially late in the period when Cirelli replaced Hagel on the top unit. Tampa Bay was able to keep the puck in the zone for an extended period of time after Cirelli won a draw, and they racked some dangerous chances, the biggest coming off of Guentzel’s stick at the side of the net, but the attempted redirect went wide. At the other end of the ice, the Kraken almost stole a goal at the end of the period as Shane Wright slid unmarked into the slot. Max Crozier wasn’t able to stop the pass from behind the net and Vasilevskiy had to come up with a big pad save to keep the Lightning up a goal. Both teams had ten shots in the period, but the Kraken only managed two high-danger chances as the Bolts kept things clean in front of Vasilevskiy. In their four wins, the Lightning have been pretty solid at closing out the game, unfortunately an early penalty by James gave the Kraken another chance with the extra skater and it didn’t take long for them to cash in a goal. Just seven seconds after the door closed on James, Jordan Eberle somehow slid the puck under a splayed out Ryan McDonagh in the crease and Jared McCann was able to swat it into the net to tie the game. Seattle had the run of play early in the period (Berkly Catton hit iron in the opening minutes) but the Lightning stuck with it, and the Girgensons’ line cashed in on a dirty goal. Ilya Mikheyev disrupted Ville Ottavainen’s attempt to clear it through the crease, put his first shot off of Grubauer’s pads, but was able to gather the rebound and slide it inside the far post. It was the 100th career goal for the free agent signee. Good times, right? Just hold on for six or seven minutes and then plunk one in an empty net? Well, Seattle had other plans. Matty Beniers beat Hagel in a face-off and got the puck back to Vince Dunn. The defenseman’s shot was deflected by Beniers past Vasilevskiy and the game was all knotted up at three. Neither team stole the game at the death and for the first time all season, the Lightning were playing extra hockey. After years of struggling in overtime, the Lightning barely allowed Seattle to touch the puck. The trio of J.J. Moser, Brandon Hagel, and Nikita Kucherov spent the first 50 seconds in the Seattle zone with Grubauer forced to make big stops on Hagel twice. Shortly after that surge, the Lightning changed on the fly as Victor Hedman jumped over the boards to replace John Carlson. Pontus Holmberg fed the puck to the captain who skated it to the boards, circled into the Seattle zone and decided to keep it himself. Holmberg drew Mackie Samoskevich wide to create a lane for Hedman who chipped the puck past Shane Wright and skated past him. Phillip Grubauer went for a poke check and Hedman slid the game-winner under his pads for his first goal of the season. The Goals Ryan Winterton (2) [Frederick Gaudreau], 1-0 Kraken Seattle goal!Scored by Ryan Winterton with 14:17 left in the 1st. Assisted by Frederick Gaudreau.TBL: 0 | SEA: 1#SEAvsTBL #GoBolts #SeaKraken — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-15T23:28:57.064594Z Brandon Hagel [5] (Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel) 1-1 Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Brandon Hagel with 03:07 left in the 1st. Assisted by Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel.TBL: 1 | SEA: 1#SEAvsTBL #GoBolts #SeaKraken — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-15T23:49:56.142417Z Brandon Hagel (6) [Anthony Cirelli, Dominic James], 2-1 Lightning Brandon Hagel snaps home his second of the game to give the /TBLightning the lead! ⚡ — NHL (Bot) (@notnhl.bsky.social) 2026-10-16T00:22:54.073223Z Jared Mcann (3) [Jordan Eberle, Chandler Stephenson] Power Play, 2-2 Power play goal for Seattle!Scored by Jared McCann with 17:06 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Jordan Eberle and Chandler Stephenson.TBL: 2 | SEA: 2#SEAvsTBL #GoBolts #SeaKraken — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-16T01:21:43.461289Z Ilya Mikheyev (2) [unassisted] 3-2 Lightning. Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Ilya Mikheyev with 10:02 left in the 3rd.TBL: 3 | SEA: 2#SEAvsTBL #GoBolts #SeaKraken — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-16T01:35:58.355478Z Matty Beniers (2) [Vince Dunn], 303 Seattle goal!Scored by Matty Beniers with 04:19 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Vince Dunn.TBL: 3 | SEA: 3#SEAvsTBL #GoBolts #SeaKraken — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-16T01:55:59.002581Z Victor Hedman (1) [Pontus Holmberg] Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Victor Hedman with 02:53 left in the OT. Assisted by Pontus Holmberg.TBL: 4 | SEA: 3#SEAvsTBL #GoBolts #SeaKraken — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-16T02:08:59.400110Z The Numbers Box Score Time on Ice – Lightning Natural Stat Trick #NHL Game Score Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-10-15:#GoBolts — HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) 2026-10-16T01:56:44.898Z