TAMPA - Brandon Hagel scored three goals, including the go-ahead strike with 1:44 remaining in regulation and an empty-netter to seal it, as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the New York Islanders 5-3 for their fourth consecutive victory.
Hagel finished with four points on the night, earning Lightning Radio’s first star honors. His go-ahead goal came off a feed from Max Crozier, who received a pass from Ryan McDonagh out of the defensive zone. Hagel skated into the offensive zone and snapped a shot from the top of the left circle that beat Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin on the stick side. After the Islanders pulled Sorokin for an extra attacker, Nikita Kucherov fed Anthony Cirelli, who got the puck to Hagel at center ice for the empty-net finish to complete the hat trick.
Jake Guentzel scored twice for Tampa Bay. He opened the scoring at 5:45 of the first period by intercepting an outlet pass from J.G. Pageau in the New York end and snapping a shot past Sorokin on the stick side. Guentzel added a power-play goal at 7:54 of the second, walking from the goal line extended to the front of the net to push the Lightning’s lead to 3-1. Guentzel was named the third star of the game.
Hagel had given Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead at 15:42 of the first period, outracing New York defenders to a Victor Hedman outlet pass at center ice and roofing a close-range shot into the top of the net on a breakaway. The Lightning held the Islanders to just four shots on goal in the opening frame.
New York rallied with three second-period goals to tie the game. Tony DeAngelo wired a shot from the high slot through a screen past Andrei Vasilevskiy at 6:27. Matthew Schaefer pulled the Islanders within one at 11:41 with a center-point shot, also through a screen. Brayden Schenn then tied it at 19:53 on a redirect in the low slot off a feed from Bo Horvat, with the Islanders on the power play in the closing seconds of the period. Schaefer, who finished with nine shots on net, was named the game’s second star.
Vasilevskiy kept Tampa Bay in the game during a sustained Islanders push in the third period, finishing with nine saves in the final frame alone. Among his stops was an acrobatic skate save on an Anthony Duclair wraparound attempt. Zemgus Girgensons also had a shorthanded breakaway in the second period, which Sorokin stopped, and another breakaway chance in the third that Sorokin turned aside.
The Lightning’s next game continues their current homestand at Amalie Arena in Tampa.