The Backcheck: Bolts pick up road win over the Blue Jackets

After dropping the first two games of a four-game road trip, the Tampa Bay Lightning got back in the win column with a 4-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday night at Nationwide Arena.

With 4:20 remaining in the opening frame, Nick Paul opened the scoring with a power-play goal to give the Bolts the 1-0 lead with the lone goal of the first period.

After Paul took a high stick from Kent Johnson and earned Tampa Bay a four-minute power play, the powerforward found himself skating on the second unit following some repairs from the medical staff on the bench. Positioning himself in the slot, Paul jumped on a rebound following a shot from Brandon Hagel and quickly roofed a follow-up into the top right corner for his 14th goal of the season with Darren Raddysh picking up the secondary helper.

Starting the middle frame with a purpose, the Lightning quickly grabbed the 2-0 lead when Anthony Cirelli scored his 11th goal of the year just 49 seconds into the period.

Taking a pass from Paul in the defensive zone, Cirelli banked the puck off the boards near the Tampa Bay blue line for Hagel, who calmly braced for a hit from Ivan Provorov and slid the puck to the middle of the ice for Cirelli. Using his speed, Cirelli created separation from Cole Sillinger and made a move to the backhand before beating Elvis Merzlikins to double the Bolts lead.

Opening the third period with another quick goal, the Lightning went up 3-0 when Steven Stamkos hammered home his 22nd goal of the season with his patented one-timer on the power play. After Nikita Kucherov sent a pass to the point for Victor Hedman, the big defenseman put the puck on a platter for Stamkos, who wired home his 207th career power-play goal to make it a 3-0 game.

Columbus got back within one late in the third period following back-to-back goals from Boone Jenner at the 12:22 and 15:50 marks of the final frame, but Tampa Bay got an answer from Hagel, who found the back of the empty net with less than a minute remaining to seal the 4-2 victory. Kucherov and Cirelli both picked up assists on the final goal of the contest.

Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start in goal for the Bolts and was strong between the pipes with 33 saves on 35 shots against.

Bolts by the Numbers

- Nick Paul opened the scoring with his 14th goal of the season and added an assist in the second period for his eighth multi-point game of the campaign. Paul has now scored a career-high seven power-play goals this season, tied with Brayden Point for the third-most on the team and trailing only Steven Stamkos (12) and Nikita Kucherov (11). Up to 29 points through 53 games (14-15—29), Paul is just three points away from tying his career-high 32-point seasons from 2021-22 and 2022-23.

- Anthony Cirelli scored his 11th goal of the year and added one assist for his sixth multi-point game of the year. Cirelli has picked up points in five of his last six contests (1-6—7) and seven of his last nine (3-8—11).

- Brandon Hagel scored one goal and picked up two assists for his 13th multi-point game of the season. Hagel extended his point streak to six games (6-4—10), tied for the longest of his career, and has found the scoresheet in 12 of his last 14 contests (9-9—18). Hagel’s five empty-net goals are the most among all NHL skaters.

- Nikita Kucherov recorded two assists and extended his point streak to seven games (5-9—14) with his 27thmulti-point game of the season. Kucherov’s 89 points (33-56—89) are the most among all NHL skaters, as are his 38 power-play points (11-27—38).

- Steven Stamkos scored his 207th career power-play goal to move within two of tying Gordie Howe (209PPG) for the fourth-most power-play goals scored with a single franchise by any player in NHL history. Stamkos is up to 12 power-play goals on the season, tied for the third-most among all NHL skaters. Stamkos is up to 48 points (22-26—48) on the season.

- Darren Raddysh collected one assist for his 20th point of the season (4-16—20). Raddysh has recorded 10 points over his last 13 games (4-6—10).

- Victor Hedman recorded his 43rd assist of the season to bring his season point total to 52 (9-43—52). Hedman is up to 23 power-play points this year (4-19—23), the third-most among all NHL defensemen. He has found the scoresheet in eight of his last 10 games (3-10—13).

- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves on 35 shots against and improved to 17-11-0 on the season. Vasilevskiy is 8-2-0 over his last 10 starts and has recorded 16 wins since December 1, tied for the most among all NHL goaltenders during that span.

Bolts Quotes

- Jon Cooper: “It’s hard to win in this league and when you can walk into an NHL building as a road team and come out with two points, you take those and move on to the next game. You can pick apart any game you want, but bottom line is we needed these points. We got them. Let’s move on.”

- Anthony Cirelli: “There’s a lot of good that came from the game. It’s just playing for that full 60. Obviously, they worked hard, and they kept playing the full 60. We gave up a couple chances there that went in the net. That’s on us to be better & try to play that full, 60-minute game.”

- Cooper: “There were spurts where we were leaking oil a little but for the most part, it was a good team game. Like I said, we gave them one midway through the third there and gave them a little life. We take a tough penalty we probably shouldn’t have there. They score on that. This is the NHL. There are good players on all teams, and they can get you. But a big goal at the end for us to hold on and, like I said, Vasy held it down when we needed help.”

Krenner’s Three Stars

1. Brandon Hagel

2. Andrei Vasilevskiy

3. Anthony Cirelli

Lightning Look Ahead

- Tuesday, February 13 at Boston Bruins, 7 p.m. ET, TD Garden

- Thursday, February 15 vs. Colorado Avalanche, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena

- Saturday, February 17 vs. Florida Panthers, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena