Hagel has 3 points, Lightning hold off Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS -- Brandon Hagel had a goal and two assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.

Nicholas Paul and Anthony Cirelli each had a goal and an assist, and Steven Stamkos scored for the Lighting (28-20-5), who have won nine of their past 12 but were coming off two straight losses in which they were outscored 9-3. Nikita Kucherov had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves.

“It’s hard to win in this league, and when you walk into an NHL building and come away with two points, you take those and move on to the next game,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “You can pick apart any game you want, but the bottom line is we needed these points. We got them and let’s move on.”

Boone Jenner scored twice in the third period, and Johnny Gaudreau had two assists for the Blue Jackets (16-25-10), who have lost three of four. Elvis Merzlikins made 33 saves.

“That's a good hockey team,” Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski said. “They know how to win, and they've been through it before, especially their core guys. It's tough. We pushed hard.”

Paul gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 15:40 of the first period with a power-play goal, scoring from the slot on the rebound of Hagel's shot.

The goal came on the second of a double-minor penalty to Kent Johnson for high-sticking.

“[Vasilevskiy] made some big saves early,” Stamkos said. “Once we scored that goal, a great goal on the power play by Paul, I think we got some life. We had a pretty good response after that.

“It kind of went south a little bit in the third, but after the two games we had coming out of the break, we needed two points.”

Cirelli scored 49 seconds of the second period to make it 2-0, finishing with his backhand on a breakaway after receiving a pass in the neutral zone from Hagel.

“I just tried to make a move and go upstairs, and luckily it went in,” Cirelli said.

Stamkos scored 23 seconds into the third period with a one-timer from the left circle on a power play to push it to 3-0.

Jenner cut it to 3-1 at 12:22, scoring at the right post off a cross-crease pass by Gaudreau. He then made it 3-2 at 15:50 with a redirection on the power play. 

“I liked the way we just stuck with it, and we knew we'd get rewarded if we didn't change anything,” Jenner said. “They started to go in in the third, but obviously we came up short and they were able to get the last one.”

Cooper said he was not surprised the Blue Jackets made a push.

“That’s a good young team,” he said. “They’ve got young legs, and if you give them a chance to rush, they can get you.”

Hagel scored into an empty net with 48 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.

“We started strong, we finished strong,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. “We had a chance to come back in this game. If you were at the game tonight, that's the style of hockey we’re going to play. That's what we wanted to create and that's what we're creating.”

NOTES: Kucherov extended his point streak to seven games (five goals, nine assists). He leads the NHL with 89 points (33 goals, 56 assists). … Hagel has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in a six-game point streak. … Lightning defenseman Haydn Fleury returned after missing 14 games with an upper-body injury. He was plus-1 and had four blocks in 22:07 of ice time. … Blue Jackets forward Yegor Chinakhov left with an upper-body injury at 7:20 of the second period. He played one shift after being high-sticked by Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak at 5:22. Vincent said Chinakhov will likely be out Tuesday at the Ottawa Senators but was not sure after that. … Columbus defenseman Adam Boqvist played for the first time since he took a puck to the mouth and lost several teeth while sitting on the bench against the Calgary Flames on Jan. 25. He was minus-1 in 21:42.