Well now. Welcome back, Nick Paul.
The Tampa Bay Lightning forward punctuated his first game of the season with a game-tying goal with 2:32 to go in the game. That set the table for Jake Guentzel’s overtime winner on a wake-the-neighbors sequence of plays that started with Andrei Vasilevskiy literally saving the game with a desperation left-pad save and ended with Darren Raddysh’s perfect geed to Guentzel on a two-on-one break the other way.
Paul was in the line-up after missing the first 19 games with an upper-body injury, and didn’t look too rusty as he finished the night with the goal, three shots, four hits, and two takeaways in 15:21 of ice time. He even took some draws, going 3-for-9 from the dot.
For the majority of the night, it wasn’t a pretty game for the Lightning. As coherent as their offense looked against New Jersey on Tuesday, it was equally discombobulated against the Oilers. Passes didn’t connect, shots weren’t taken, power plays were left wanting, and they failed to put sustained pressure on Edmonton goaltender Calvin Pickard, who finished with 33 saves.
Edmonton came out hot, as if they were taking out their frustrations from their loss against Washington on Wednesday, and pushed the Lightning back on their heels for the first ten minutes of the game. An early turnover by Emil Lilleberg led to Trent Frederic’s game-opening goal just 90 seconds into the game.
Trent Frederic [2] (Leon Draisaitl) 1-0 Edmonton
Edmonton goal!
Scored by Trent Frederic with 18:28 remaining in the 1st period.
Assisted by Leon Draisaitl.
Tampa Bay: 0
Edmonton: 1
#EDMvsTBL #GoBolts #LetsGoOilers
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) November 20, 2025 at 7:48 PM
After the goal, well, it just wasn’t a pretty hockey team. Both teams failed to use special teams to their advantage as Edmonton went 0-for-2 and Tampa Bay was 0-for-3 with the extra skater. To their credit, the Lightning did take Connor McDavid out of the game for most of the night. After he had five shot attempts and three scoring chances in his first 5:46 of ice time, he finished the game with “just” 8 shot attempts and four scoring chances total despite being on the ice for 24 minutes.
For 13:45 of that, he was up against J.J. Moser. The Swiss defender did his job and kept the best player in the league off of the scoreboard. He was also helped out by his goaltender. Andrei Vasilevskiy kept the team in the game, making saves look easy after the Lightning players in front of him kept fumbling away the puck. A nifty save on Vasily Podkolzin late in the second period kept it a 1-0 game.
On the Lightning’s side, they just didn’t test Pickard, a goalie that entered the night with an .830 SV% through the first 40 minutes. Brayden Point had a nice look from the slot on the power play and Guentzel had a nifty redirection that Pickard had to be sharp on, but they had just 10 scoring chances (to Edmonton’s 16) at 5v5 through the first two periods.
In the third, perhaps aided by some tired legs on Edmonton’s side, the Lightning turned it on. Brandon Hagel had the game-tying goal on his stick just 30 seconds into the period, but Pickard Superman’d his way across the crease to make a diving stop. The Oilers’ goalie also made a really nice save on Guentzel just before Vasilevskiy had to make a big stop on a wide-open Andrew Mangiapane.
Just as thoughts started to turn towards pulling Vasilevskiy, Nick Paul made an entry that was just barely inside and took the puck wide. With Yanni Gourde acting like a lead blocker, Paul powered his way to the front of the net before wristing a shot past Pickard for his first goal of the season.
Nick Paul [1] (J.J. Moser, Emil Lilleberg) 1-1
“NICK PAUL!!! NICK PAUL!!! IN HIS RETURN HE SCORES THE TYING GOAL!”
What he said 👇
#EDMvsTBL
🎧: boltsaud.io/live
📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) November 20, 2025 at 10:41 PM
With a hard-won point under their belt, the Lightning were off to overtime. Despite losing the opening face-off, they were able to nullify McDavid and Draisaitl early on. After Pickard stopped a shot from Point, Edmonton countered and Vasilevskiy stopped an initial shot by Darnell Nurse. He sprawled down to stop Zach Hyman’s follow-up shot, and then somehow, while prone on his stomach, lifted his left pad up just enough to deny Jack Roslovic, for his 24th and final save of the night.
Kucherov worked the loose puck to Raddysh, who had just enough of an edge on Nurse to wrap a pass over to Guentzel. Jake didn’t miss from in close, and jubilation ensued.
Jake Guentzel [12] (Darren Raddysh, Nikita Kucherov) 2-1 Lightning
“JAKE GUENTZEL WINS IT AFTER VASILEVSKIY MADE AN ABSOLUTELY MIRACULOUS SAVE!!!!!”
VASY AND JAKE, THE OT HEROES!
#EDMvsTBL
🎧: boltsaud.io/live
📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) November 20, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Would it be a bit too presumptuous to start quietly mentioning Guentzel’s name in the Hart Trophy race? Where would the Lightning be if not for his consistent play through the first 20 games of the season? It’s hard to say, but with his play, the Lightning have quietly moved into second place in the Atlantic Division, and trail Detroit by just a point with a game in hand.