The Lightning opened the scoring with less than five minutes remaining in the first period at Benchmark International Arena.
Defenseman Emil Lilleberg accepted a pass at the top of the offensive zone and wound up for a slap shot, which went off Hagel’s body in front of the net before hitting twine with 4:26 remaining.
The goal was Hagel’s 10th of the season and was started by Nikita Kucherov’s pass to Lilleberg from the right boards.
Hagel and Kucherov helped set up the 2-0 goal for Tampa Bay in the second period, too. Defenseman Declan Carlile won a race to the puck in the defensive zone and poked it away from a rushing Flyer, which created a rush opportunity for the Lightning.
Kucherov entered the offensive zone on a 3-on-2 chance and passed to Hagel in the left circle, who outwaited a sprawling Flyers defenseman and dished to Anthony Cirelli atop the crease for a redirected goal with four minutes left in the middle frame.
“Your best defense is your best offense,” Hagel said of the play. “The quicker and harder you can be in the D-zone and create loose pucks and battles, the O-zone is going to take care of itself…Carly…poked it there, was able to get it to me, and I was able to give it to Kuch. Just little things like that, using your stick, being hard is going to turn into good offense. And I think we’re doing that, and we’ve got to continue to get better at it, obviously, but everyone buys into it and knows that if you take care of defense, two points is going to come.”
Hagel’s second goal of the night was into the empty net in the game’s final minute for the 3-0 final score.
The Lightning earned the win and kept the Flyers scoreless despite being outshot 16-11 over the second and third periods.