On the same day the Tampa Bay Lightning clinched their spot in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Bolts added standings points for good measure with a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins.<\/p>\n
Defenseman Darren Raddysh made franchise history in the process, scoring the game-winning goal late in the third period to help Tampa Bay improve to 48-22-6 on the season.<\/p>\n
Raddysh\u2019s winning goal with 5:31 left in the game was the difference, this his 21st goal of the season. Raddysh\u2019s 21 goals are the most in a season by any Lightning defenseman in franchise history, overtaking 20-goal campaigns posted by Victor Hedman (2021-22) and Dan Boyle (2006-07).<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s worked so hard and he\u2019s had such a good season, and everyone\u2019s so proud and happy for him that he got the record,\u201d teammate Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous said of Raddysh. \u201cIt\u2019s just starting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay clinched a spot in the playoffs earlier in the day thanks to the New York Rangers defeating the Detroit Red Wings 4-1, but the Lightning still added two standings points on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The Lightning have now qualified for the playoffs in nine consecutive seasons, and the team\u2019s 1-4-2 record that opened this 2025-26 season is far behind in the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just the battle in this team,\u201d coach Jon Cooper said after clinching a playoff spot. \u201cWe\u2019ve scored a bunch of goals, we’ve played great defensively. If we’ve had to fight, we fight, and I think we can play this game a whole lot of different ways. I\u2019ve been proud to coach these guys and really looking forward to getting through these last six games and seeing what we can do in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s win kept Tampa Bay atop the Atlantic Division and required a team effort\u2014the Lightning penalty kill and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy each did their part to not allow Boston on the scoreboard through the first 20 minutes of action.<\/p>\n
Vasilevskiy added a crucial stop in the opening moments of the second period, denying Bruins forward Viktor Arvidsson on a partial breakaway to keep the game scoreless.<\/p>\n
Boston, however, was still the first team on the scoreboard with Casey Mittelstadt\u2019s goal 6:47 into the second period. Mittelstadt snuck to the slot, where he accepted Viktor Arvidsson\u2019s spinning pass from the right halfwall for an open shot inside the left goalpost for a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
It was the only puck to beat Vasilevskiy in a 21-save win, which included 10 stops in a tilted second period in which the Lightning were outshot 11 to five.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay chipped away for the tying goal from D\u2019Astous moments into the third period when the defenseman drove to the top of the left circle and fired a shot toward the net, which hit Oliver Bjorkstrand and bounced back to D\u2019Astous near the left post.<\/p>\n
The defenseman buried the second opportunity for his sixth goal of the season and the 1-1 score 2:11 into the final frame.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw Bjorky shoot the puck and the rebound came to me, and I was in a good spot, so I just shot the puck and it came back to me,\u201d D\u2019Astous said. \u201cI knew the goalie was a little bit in front of his crease, so I just saw an opening and put it in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the same day the Tampa Bay Lightning clinched their spot in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5105],"tags":[5,189,4,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":{"0":"post-541432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-lightning","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabaylightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}