Brandon Hagel produced two goals and an assist as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 at Nationwide Arena on Thursday.
Hagel opened the scoring for the Lightning 2:57 into the first period, tipping in a shot with assists credited to Charle-Edouard D'Astous and Nikita Kucherov. Columbus answered back on the man advantage at 12:20 when Matthew Knies tipped in his third goal of the season off feeds from Kent Johnson and Sean Monahan to tie the game 1-1.
Tampa Bay pulled ahead early in the third period. Jake Guentzel beat Columbus goaltender Jet Greaves with a wrist shot at 1:06 of the final frame, assisted by Hagel and John Carlson. Hagel then extended the advantage to 3-1 at 7:41 with a slap shot set up by Guentzel and Kucherov.
Dennis Hildeby earned the win for Tampa Bay by turning aside 28 of 29 shots. Greaves stopped 25 of 28 shots in the loss for Columbus. The Blue Jackets went 1-for-2 on the power play, while the Lightning did not receive a power-play opportunity across 60 minutes.
With the victory, Tampa Bay improved to 13-4-2 on the season and has won two consecutive games. The Blue Jackets dropped to 7-10-0 and extended their winless streak to three games.
Both clubs return to action on Saturday, November 14. The Lightning host the Detroit Red Wings, while the Blue Jackets host the Philadelphia Flyers.
