If the Tampa Bay Lightning manage to push their way into the postseason, these recent games might go down as the spark that ignited their second-half surge. With their backs against the wall, outside of a playoff spot, they faced a crucial week that could define their season.
At the start of the week, the Lightning were trailing in the Atlantic Division standings, sitting outside the playoff picture. Their two-game series against the Ottawa Senators, a team ahead of them by four points, was an absolute must-win situation. And boy, did they step up. After grinding out a 4-3 victory on Tuesday, they delivered one of their most dominant performances of the season on Thursday, crushing Ottawa 5-1. That four-point swing pushed them into third place in the division, edging past the Senators by point percentage.
Special teams were a major factor in their success. The Lightning’s power play had been struggling, going just 1-for-14 over the previous four games. But Thursday night, things finally clicked. Early in the game, Jake Guentzel got them rolling with his league-leading 13th power-play goal of the season. Nikita Kucherov’s no-look backhand pass set up Brayden Point for an initial shot, but when the puck bounced free, Guentzel was in the perfect spot to bury it, giving Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.
While Guentzel shined on the power play, he also stepped up on the penalty kill, filling in for Anthony Cirelli, who was sidelined with an upper-body injury. Logging over three minutes of short-handed ice time, Guentzel played a key role in the Lightning going a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Despite their strong play, the Lightning did have a few defensive lapses. One of them led to Ottawa’s lone goal, as Michael Amadio found himself wide open in front of the net and redirected a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy, tying the game at 1 early in the second period. But Tampa Bay didn’t let the setback shake them. Just minutes later, Brandon Hagel delivered a clutch go-ahead goal—his third in the last four games—on a breakaway. Ryan McDonagh’s stretch pass sent Hagel flying down the ice, and he turned on the jets to beat Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot before ripping a wrister past Anton Forsberg for his 24th goal of the season.
“That’s just a guy making a smart hockey play and finding open ice,” McDonagh said about Hagel’s goal. “I just tried to put it on his tape and let him do his thing.”
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was just as impressed. “They recognized they had a step on the guy, and Hags made one heck of a play,” Cooper said. “That’s why he’s been so important to this team and why he’s representing his country next week.”
From that point on, the Lightning never looked back. Instead of playing it safe in the third period, they stayed aggressive and added three more goals in the final minutes. Point extended the lead to 3-1 with his 29th goal of the season, finishing a play set up beautifully by Kucherov and Gage Goncalves. Erik Cernak added an empty-netter—his first goal of the season—and Mitchell Chaffee tacked on one more for good measure with just 46 seconds remaining.
“We always talk about not just sitting back and letting them come at you in waves,” McDonagh said of their late-game approach. “We bent a little, but we didn’t break. I love how we stayed assertive and kept attacking rather than playing scared.”
Vasilevskiy was rock-solid between the pipes, stopping all 10 shots he faced in the third period to finish with a 27-save performance. The Lightning have now held opponents to two goals or fewer in four of their last five games—an encouraging sign as they continue their playoff push.
For Cooper, these back-to-back wins were a defining moment. “It was time to look in the mirror and see what we’re made of,” he said. “For two games, our guys showed they’re made of a lot.”
Now, the Lightning’s focus shifts to their next big test—a matinee matchup against the Detroit Red Wings, a team just one point behind them in the standings. After that, they’ll face the Montreal Canadiens, a team that has had their number this season, in their final game before the break.
“These last two games were huge against a really good opponent,” McDonagh said. “We should feel confident heading into these next couple of games before the break.”
The Lightning are still in the thick of a competitive Eastern Conference race, but if this week is any indication, they’re finding their groove at just the right time. If they do make the playoffs, they might just look back at these games as the turning point that set everything in motion.
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