The impending break for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off tournament is well-earned for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tampa Bay started strong in each of their games on the weekend to build multi-goal leads, earning Atlantic Division wins on Saturday and Sunday to extend their winning streak to four straight games entering the break.
The Lightning defeated Detroit 6-3 on Saturday before traveling to Montreal for a 4-2 win on Sunday afternoon. Tampa Bay is 5-0-1 in the team’s last six games.
Tampa Bay is now 31-20-4 this season and has won four straight Atlantic Division games for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said his team rose to the challenge.
“It’s four games in six nights—not even six nights—and to finish on this back to back, it’s a grind. This league, its tough,” Cooper said. “We were I think 3-9 in the division going into these four games, so it was pivotal we got points. I guess we were a little greedy, we got eight of them."
Big guns key while young gun scores in Bolts win over Detroit
Tampa Bay’s top players were exactly that on Saturday, and a new face made an immediate impact in his NHL debut as the Lightning earned an Atlantic Division win over the Detroit Red Wings.
Forward Brandon Hagel had two goals and two assists for the Lightning to lead all players, and he didn’t take long to start the party at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
Hagel’s shot from the high slot gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead one minute, 28 seconds into the game. Hagel accepted a pass near center ice, burst down the center of the offensive zone and let his shot fly from near the top of the left circle, beating Detroit goalie Alex Lyon on the glove side.
Defenseman Erik Cernak was quick to add to the visitors’ lead, as his wrist shot from the blue line evaded Lyon for the 2-0 marker 2:56 into the game. Saturday marked the third-fastest two goals to open any game in franchise history.
Vladimir Tarasenko’s 300th NHL point was earned on a net front redirection, one that gave Detroit its first goal and changed the score to 2-1 midway through the second period.
The Lightning weren’t phased.
Brayden Point scored his 30th goal of the season on the rush two minutes after the Tarasenko goal, shooting into the top right corner of the net after a saucer pass from rookie Gage Goncalves.
Nick Paul’s breakaway goal pushed the Lightning lead to 4-1 with 4:47 left in the first period.
A power play for Detroit ended with a Patrick Kane goal with 3:06 left in the opening 20 minutes to make it 4-2, a score that would hold through the first period.
The second period tilted the ice toward the Red Wings, who outshot the Lightning 19-5 in the period. Detroit forward Alex DeBrincat forced a turnover and buried an in-tight chance to pull the Red Wings within a goal of the Lightning, 4-3, with 5:31 left in the second.
“I think we were just trying to make complicated passes out of the zone and turning pucks over. We couldn’t change so we were kind of stuck there for a little bit in our D zone,” Cernak said. “I think that was the main reason why we didn't play well in the second period, but I’m glad how we responded in the third, and we got a W."
It was the newest addition to Tampa Bay’s roster that scored the needed cushion goal on Saturday. Rookie Dylan Duke, a 21-year-old forward, scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game 4:10 into the third period.
Duke dug a loose puck out from a wall battle with a Detroit player and fed the puck to Victor Hedman at the point. He passed the puck to defenseman Nick Perbix atop the offensive zone, whose shot hit the stick of forward Mitchell Chaffee in front.
Duke sprinted for the loose puck in the slot, slapping the rebound into the open cage for a 5-3 lead and his first career goal.
“I think I got it up to the point and then both D made a great play, got it down low, Chaffs (Chaffee) made another nice play and it was laying right there,” Duke said. “I was fortunate to be in the right spot at the right time and just hammer it home. Then emotions kind of just took over from there.”
Duke made his debut in Michigan, the state where he played for the University of Michigan hockey team for the past two seasons.
“I think everyone in the organization was hoping to see this kid play a game for the Lightning one day,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Duke. “It just turns out it was the perfect storm of it’s where he went to college and his whole family’s here, his brother’s playing in the building tonight three hours, four hours after our game. That’s a pretty cool experience, and that’s one that family will never forget.”
Hagel’s second goal of the night was into the empty net with 2:03 left in the game, closing the scoring at a 6-3 score.
Hagel led the Lightning in scoring with four points, while Nikita Kucherov finished with three assists and Cernak matched a career-high with his three-point night that included a goal and two assists.
Cernak credited players like Hagel for helping to find that result.
“I don't know. You don’t see that that often from me, so it’s definitely exciting,” Cernak said. “I just try to make it easy, put pucks to the net, make passes to our forwards and when we give them clear passes to their stick they can make magic, and that’s what happened tonight.”
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves—including 18 in the second period—for his third straight win.
Tampa Bay’s offense saw a boost, too, and that combination with Vasilevskiy made Cooper a happy coach.
“Us getting four goals in a game the past five weeks has been a problem. For us to finally have kind of a first period explosion was nice. It’s something that we kind of felt it in the Ottawa series that maybe our looks were starting to go into the net, and finally they did tonight. But give Detroit credit, they kept pushing, and our goalie was huge tonight.”
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Brandon Hagel, TBL (2 goals, 2 assists)
- Nikita Kucherov, TBL (3 assists)
- Alex DeBrincat, DET (Goal, 2 assists)
Fast start against Montreal enough to stack another win
Tampa Bay had another motivated beginning to Sunday’s game in Canada, as the Lightning scored on their first two shots on goal for a quick 2-0 lead over Montreal.
Offense was not an issue for Tampa Bay despite being without leading scorer Kucherov due to an upper-body injury.
Paul kickstarted the scoring 6:56 into the game, roofing a backhand shot after receiving a pass from Hagel in the offensive zone and deking around Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes.
Victor Hedman capitalized on a 4-on-1 rush, taking a pass from rookie Gage Goncalves and firing the puck through Dobes’ glove for the 2-0 lead at the 10:28 mark. Dobes was replaced by goalie Samuel Montembeault after the score.
Montreal had an answer late in the first period. They took advantage of a late power play, as Brendan Gallagher’s shot from atop the left faceoff circle put the home team on the scoreboard with 1:07 remaining in the first period.
Tampa Bay led 2-1 through 20 minutes despite being outshot 12-6. Vasilevskiy had 11 saves after the first period.
“He was really good,” Cooper said of his goalie. “There’s gonna be a three up on the board and he’s probably not gonna like that, but he was great. The big save for me was the penalty shot. That could’ve been a little bit of a momentum swing for them, he stops that and then we got those early goals in the first, early goals in the second. It’s also a tough league to come back in at times, so it was big we got the lead.”
Forward Brayden Point’s 13th power-play goal of the season—a number that leads the NHL—made it 3-1 Tampa Bay 65 seconds into the second period.
Another key moment came 6:43 into the middle frame, when forward Zemgus Girgensons scored his first goal with Tampa Bay.
Girgensons’ goal came on a netftont look after a pass from Cam Atkinson at the right post. Girgensons tapped the puck home for the 4-1 lead and his first goal in his 55th game with the team.
“It’s a long time coming for that poor kid,” Cooper said. “He’s had so many chances and Atkinson made a great play to him, but if you saw our bench guys were super fired up for him.”
Montreal received a goal from Christian Dvorak with 7:15 left in the second period to make it 4-2.
The Canadiens then pulled themselves within a goal of the Lightning in period three when Gallagher scored his second goal of the day on a shot that hit the right post and fell into the net, making it 4-3 with 10:41 left in regulation.
An empty-net goal for Anthony Cirelli closed the scoring in the final minute.
“You know your mind can kind of swerve off a little bit, but the guys stayed true to the task,” Hedman said. “A big, big sweep for us in these divisional games, and to be able to come up with four wins, that’s very big for us. Today was a grind. It wasn’t the prettiest of games we have played, but we got the win.”
Montreal continued their push to tie the game late, but Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy prevented the comeback. Vasilevskiy finished with 32 saves for the win, including 22 in the final two periods.
This weekend marked the first time Vasilevskiy has played on consecutive nights since January 2022.
“I gotta tip my hat to the goalie,” Cooper said. “He played all four, played the back-to-back, saw a lot of rubber the last two nights and did a heck of a job for us.”
Point agreed.
“Incredible. Both games he was unreal,” the forward said of Vasilevskiy. “Big reason why we won both games, but to see him playing like that gives us so much confidence, and obviously I think he stole this one for us tonight.”
Cirelli (1-1—2) joined teammates Hagel (0-2—2), Hedman (1-1—2) and Jake Guentzel (0-2—2) to co-lead the Lightning in scoring with two points apiece.
Tampa Bay will join the rest of the NHL for the 4 Nations Face-Off break. Their next game will be on Sunday, Feb. 23 when the Seattle Kraken visit AMALIE Arena.
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (32 saves, win)
- Brendan Gallagher, MTL (2 goals)
- Victor Hedman, TBL (Goal, assist)
