Jake Guentzel had a hat trick, Darren Raddysh had a three-point night, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 31-of-32 shots on the night. Those were the ingredients needed for the Tampa Bay Lightning to snap their two-game home losing streak with a 5-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils. The dormant Lightning power play was sharp, converting 2-of-3 chances
The Lightning faithful were treated to the return of a couple of forwards as Dominic James and Anthony Cirelli were in the starting line-up. So where the call-ups in Steven Santini and Declan Carlile. The newest defenseman to be sidelined was Erik Cernak who was listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Also missing the game was head coach Jon Cooper who was out due to personal reasons. With the changes, the lines were swizzled a bit and for much of the game interim coach Jeff Halpen split up Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov.
Both teams exchanged chances early in the game as there was open ice both ways. The Lightning were skating well, and for a team that has a lot of unfamiliar players and mixed lines, their passing was fairly crisp.
A breakaway goal is always an impressive offensive feat, but the Lightning’s first goal was born in the defensive zone. While they won’t get an official assist on the goal, it doesn’t happen without Emil Lilleberg, Charle-Edouard D’Astous, and Brayden Point forming a wall at the blue line. Dawson Mercer crossed the blue line, but had nowhere to pass the puck. He is forced to try and awkward play to Timo Meier, and when the pass is off the mark, Guentzel is off to the races.
Jake Guentzel [9] (unassisted) 1-0 Lightning
“Jake Guentzel’s in alone… SCORREEE!!! JAKE GUENTZEL!!!”
Guentzel cashes in on the breakaway!
#NJDvsTBL
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📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 7:46 PM
The Lightning would kill off another penalty fairly easily. New Jersey had a few shots, but the Lightning forced most of them from the perimeter and Vasilevskiy dealt with them easily. That allowed them to double the lead with a late goal.
Anthony Cirelli chipped the puck down the ice, and Brandon Hagel fought his way to the end boards to negate an icing. He landed a nice hit as well, which allowed Anthony Cirelli to knife in and steal the puck. Tony Two Goals flicked a no-look pass to the spot Kucherov was heading to and Kucherov didn’t miss from a tight angle.
Nikita Kucherov [9] (Anthony Cirelli) 2-0 Lightning
“SCORREEE!!! KUCHEROV!!!”
Hagel lays the hammer 🔨 on Dillon to set up Cirelli and Kuch!
#NJDvsTBL
🎧: boltsaud.io/live
📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 7:57 PM
The Lightning headed into the second period with a two-goal lead, something that they are somewhat familiar with. A difference between tonight and the game against Vancouver is that the Lightning kept their feet moving. Did they make mistakes? Yes, but they covered them well. There have been a lot of games over the last few seasons where it seemed like every mistake they made ended up in their net. This was not one of those nights.
Case in point: roughly four minutes into the middle frame, the Lightning lost a face-off in their own zone, but regained the puck. An attempted pass through the middle of the ice was picked off by the Devils and Jonas Siegenthaler was in a dangerous spot and ready to shoot. The puck never made it to Vasilevskiy as J.J. Moser blocked the shot. Mistakes are part of hockey, it’s what a team does after they happen that makes the difference, and on this night, the Lightning were covering and recovering nicely.
After taking two penalties in the first period, they earned a couple of power plays of their own in the middle frame. The first one had zone time and good puck movement that led to a lot of shots, the best one a rip from Darren Raddysh that caught some pipe. They didn’t score, but they also didn’t kill their own momentum.
That paid off a few minutes later on their second chance with the extra skater. The Lightning pass the puck too much. That’s a fact everyone has to live with. Often it leads to opportunities going by the wayside, but when it works, and it seems like the faint whistle of “Sweet Georgia Brown” can be heard in the arena, they can produce some pretty goals. After some nice one-touch, tap passes, and some cross-seam work, Oliver Bjorkstrand sends it back to Raddysh who fired a shot-pass to Guentzel who makes a nifty deflection for his second goal of the season.
Jake Guentzel [10] (Darren Raddysh, Oliver Bjorkstrand) Power Play, 3-0 Lightning
“That play by Raddysh is a super professional play! – Phil”
A shot pass by Raddy tipped in by Guentz on the power play!
#NJDvsTBL
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📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 8:34 PM
A three-goal lead is tough for a road team to overcome, and the Lightning weren’t planning on sitting back to make it easy. It also helped that Vasilevskiy was up to his usual tricks. While he routinely shrugged off most of the shots he faced, he flashed the glove on a screened shot from Hischier with just over five minutes to go in the period.
The Devils didn’t get to the top of the Eastern Conference by rolling over in games and they had a bit of push over the last five minutes. Hischier would eventually get his revenge on a bit of a bizarre goal. Arseny Gritsyuk ripped a shot on net that Vasilevskiy made a tough blocker save on. The puck pinballed to his left where Hischier drove the net while entwined with Moser. The puck hit Hischier’s skate, and with Moser prone on the ice, it hit the Lightning defenseman’s glove and went over the goalline.
After initially being ruled “no goal”, a quick review determined it was valid.
Nico Hischier [4] (Arseny Gritsyuk, Jesper Bratt) 3-1 Lightning
New Jersey goal!
Scored by Nico Hischier with 02:13 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Arseny Gritsyuk and Jesper Bratt.
Tampa Bay: 3
New Jersey: 1
#NJDvsTBL #GoBolts #NJDevils
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 8:50 PM
The Lightning finished the period fairly strong with Guentzel almost getting his third of the night, but the post denied his shot from the slot. To the final period!
Everyone likes a good hockey cliche and the game was at the point where the next goal would be an important one. If the Devils could close the gap to one goal, things could get a little tight on the Lightning bench. If Tampa Bay netted the next one, then it would be tough to see a three-goal lead evaporate.
All night long, the Lightning had been driving shots on net from the blueline. The defensive corps combined for 15 shot attempts on the night and none was better than the slapshot from Darren Raddysh. There was nothing fancy about it as Point cut into the zone, found Raddysh at the point and the big bomb of shot was past Jacob Markstrom before the goaltender could flick his leg out.
Darren Raddysh [2] (Brayden Point, J.J. Moser) 4-1 Lightning
🗣️ “SCORREEE!!! RADDYSH!!!”
Raddy with a bomb! 🦅
#NJDvsTBL
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📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Why not cap the night off with one more power play? Nikita Kucherov to Jake Guentzel for the deflection, and the hats rained down onto the ice. Just an absolute clinic on how to move the puck with the extra skater.
Jake Guentzel [11] (Nikita Kucherov, Darren Raddysh) Power Play, 5-1 Lightning
“HAT TRICK!!! JAKE GUENTZEL!!!” 🧢🧢🧢
Another beautiful deflection for Guentzel’s third of the game!
#NJDvsTBL
🎧: boltsaud.io/live
📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) November 18, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Despite having to kill a couple of penalties the Lightning finished off the game without any further blemishes to their goals against, and with the win, officially moved into the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. They wrap up the three-game homestand on Thursday against Edmonton.