Three-point night for Raddysh leads Lightning to 4-1 win over Blues

After a slightly chaotic win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, the Tampa Bay Lightning made it two wins in a row with a business-like, 4-1, victory over the St. Louis Blues. Darren Raddysh led the way with a goal and two assists while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 23-of-24 shots in the win. Their power play, which was 2-for-30 on home ice heading into the game, cashed in twice.

The St. Louis Blues aren’t having the best of seasons, and a lack of scoring has been a big reason behind their struggles. So, getting the lead would be a solid plan of attack for the Lightning. Enter Pontus Holmberg. Just 21 seconds into the game he tipped home a shot from Raddysh to give the Lightning the lead. Raddysh doubled the lead eight minutes later as he blasted one in off of a Blues’ defender on the power play for his eighth goal of the seasons.

While the Lightning weren’t racking up the shots, they spending a lot of time in the St. Louis zone, and making life difficult for the Blues to get up the ice. While the 2-0 lead was nice, there was a feeling that the Lightning might have left a little on the ice, especially considering they had two more power plays that went goalless. Jordan Binnington did have a say in that, especially with a lunging pad save on Declan Carlile (who had one of his better games as a young Bolt):

JORDAN BINNINGTON REALLY JUST MADE THAT SAVE 🤯

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— NHL (Bot) (@notnhl.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 7:41 PM

Vasilevskiy wasn’t tested often through the first half of the game, but he was sharp when he needed to be with his best save coming off of a shot from the slot by Pavel Buchnevich that required a full extension of his left leg. That stop would have even more importance as Justin Faulk cut the Lightning lead to one with a blast that a screened Vasilevskiy never saw go past him and into the net.

There was no sagging by the Lightning, though. Anthony Cirelli tipped a Raddysh shot just over a minute later that trickled underneath Binnington’s pads and into the back of the net. A two-goal lead seemed insurmountable for the Blues’ offense. They kept pressing, but the Lightning were content to push most of their shot attempts to the outside and counter-attack when opportunities presented themselves.

They sealed it off five minutes into the third period when Jake Guentzel found Oliver Bjorkstrand with a slot pass on the power play. Bjorkstrand banged it home for his 400th career point and sixth goal on the season. It hasn’t been the season anyone has hoped for from the Danish forward, but he does have four goals in his last six games.

The Bolts didn’t post an overwhelmingly impressive game on the stat sheets, but it was an extremely solid performance. They scored on the power play, they killed off two short-handed opportunities, and pretty much dictated play for much of the night. With the win, they head into the holiday break on a two-game winning streak, and have a four days to heal up before taking on the Florida Panthers on Saturday.

The Goals

Pontus Holmberg [4] (Darren Raddysh, Zemgus Girgensons) 1-0 Lightning

“Tipped in front!!! PONTUS HOLMBERG!!!”

The Lightning grab the lead with a fast start!
#STLvsTBL

🎧: boltsaud.io/live
📻: 102.5 The Bone

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— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 7:25 PM

Darren Raddysh [8] (Nikita Kucherov, Jake Guentzel) Power Play, 2-0 Lightning

“Yeah that’s yours!” 🫵

Raddysh grabs the power play goal to double the lead!
#STLvsTBL

🎧: boltsaud.io/live
📻: 102.5 The Bone

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