The Backcheck: Bolts earn back-to-back split with wild win over Devils | Tampa Bay Lightning

Beat writer Benjamin Pierce recaps Tampa Bay's back-to-back to begin the week

The Tampa Bay Lightning earned a pair of standings points on Tuesday night to wrap up a three-game road trip and improve to 4-2-0 this season.

The Lightning overcame deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 at Prudential Center, scoring seven goals across the second and third periods to defeat the New Jersey Devils 8-5. The game ended the first back-to-back of the season for the Bolts, one that began with a Monday loss in Toronto.

Forward Brandon Hagel scored his third career hat-trick with three goals in 6 minutes and 25 seconds in period two to lead the Bolts past the Devils.

“I think we just kind of stuck with it. I think we talked about it, we just needed to play the right way,” Hagel said. “I think we’re a good hockey team. Skill’s not going to win us a game, but work ethic is, and I think that’s what we brought tonight.”

Hagel’s natural hat-trick began less than two minutes after Bolts captain Victor Hedman tied the game 2-2 in the seventh minute of the second period. Hedman’s first goal of the year came when he jumped into the offensive zone and ripped a shot over New Jersey goalie Jake Allen’s shoulder from the left faceoff dot.

Hagel’s hat-trick was the fourth-fastest in franchise history. He started it with a slap shot from the point, which ricocheted off a New Jersey defender for the Lightning’s first lead at 9:27 of the middle period. His second came on a 2-on-1 with rookie Conor Geekie, as the young Bolt sent a backdoor pass to Hagel, which the latter buried for his second. Hagel finished the hat-trick by finding a loose puck in front of the New Jersey net after a drive by teammate Emil Lilleberg.

“I don’t know,” Hagel said when asked about two of his three career hat-tricks coming against New Jersey. “I guess they’re just my team and hopefully it stays that way. I don’t know, I guess we’ll see the next game.”

The second line of Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Geekie had a big night for Tampa Bay. Cirelli finished with a career-high four assists, and Geekie’s helper was his first NHL point.

New Jersey scored 51 seconds into the second period to take a 2-1 lead, and the Lightning knew they needed to ramp up play. A five-goal second period served as a fair answer.

“I think it was just a moment where we knew we had to be better,” Cirelli said of going down 2-1. “I thought when we started getting pucks in behind their D(efense), were using our legs, were forechecking hard, getting pucks to the net, all the things that kind of make up our game, we started doing more in that second period and we were lucky to get a couple goals there. … Overall I thought it was a great effort from the guys, and it was great to get the two points.”

Tampa Bay led 6-2 through two periods after Hedman’s second goal of the game before New Jersey scored twice in the opening minutes of the third. The Lightning answered with a short-handed goal by JJ Moser and a power-play goal by Jake Guentzel to put the Devils away for good and end with a season-high eight goals.

Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson made 30 stops for his first win of the season.

Ben’s Three Stars:

1: Brandon Hagel (3 goals, 1 assist)

2: Anthony Cirelli (4 assists)

3: JJ Moser (1 goal, 2 assists)

Toronto hands Bolts a Monday loss

Tuesday’s win canceled a loss the night prior in Toronto as the Maple Leafs beat the Lightning 5-2.

Toronto was the team with the better second period on Monday, scoring four times to turn a 1-1 game into a 5-1 advantage for the home team at Scotiabank Arena.

William Nylander opened the scoring 3:57 into the game, but Bolts forward Nick Paul evened the score on a breakaway. Paul made a move with the puck that was saved by Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz, but Maple Leaf defender Simon Benoit slid the puck into his own net to tie the game at 15:57 of the first period.

Leafs captain Auston Matthews tucked a loose puck through the legs of Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to take advantage of a power play less than two minutes into the second period, the first of four second-period goals for Toronto.

Nylander scored his second goal of the game 7:33 into the middle frame, and Max Pacioretty made it 4-1 Toronto less than two minutes later. Matthew Knies extended Toronto’s lead to 5-1 with a breakaway goal at 14:02 of the second.

“It wasn’t the start we wanted. We were down 1-0 and the last 12 minutes of the period I thought we leaned on ‘em pretty good, so I was feeling really good about our game going into the second period,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.

“They got the early power-play goal and every time we made an error they took advantage of it. It was just one of those nights.”

Brayden Point scored his third goal of the season on the power play with 5:07 left in the game, taking a feed from Nikita Kucherov in the left corner and finding the net behind Stolarz. An assist on the goal extended Kucherov’s season-opening point streak to five games.

Lightning goalies Andrei Vasilevskiy and Johansson split the game. Vasilevskiy finished with 10 saves, while Johansson stopped 14 of 15 shots in relief.

Ben’s Three Stars:

1: William Nylander, TOR (2 goals, 1 assist)

2: Victor Hedman (2 assists, +1)

3: Anthony Stolarz, TOR (32 saves)

Tampa Bay now turns their attention back home—the Lightning open a three-game homestand with a batttle against the Minnesota Wild at AMALIE Arena on Thursday night. The Wild are 4-0-2 this season.