Lightning Leave Seattle with Two Points

The story of the night was Declan Carlile scoring his first NHL goal late in the third period in what was his second NHL appearance. Carlile was called up from Syracuse on Saturday morning to help assist the Lightning as they battle injuries to the blueline.

“I was an undrafted free agent out of school and I didn’t know where I’d be,” Carlile said in his post game interview. “And now I’m here, and I scored my first NHL goal, which is something you always dream about as a kid. And on top of it, we got a great team win.”

After a slow team start, Brandon Hagel tied it 1-1 at the 8:16 mark of the first period. Then Point put the Lightning ahead 2-1 with his 20th goal of the season.

From there, things started to roll.

“I think we started really slow,” said Hagel. “I think they were pushing, but 'J.J.' kept us in it right from the beginning. We were able to get one, and then we kind of went on from there.”

Jake Guentzel locked in and made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 4:03 in the third period. December has been a good month for the Lightning power play, scoring eight goals in their last six games. In doing so, Guentzel extended his goal streak to a career-high six games and tied Anthony Cirelli for the longest run by a Lightning player this season.

“The forecheck was a big part of our game, no question,” said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. “We kept a lot of plays alive because of that.”

Brandon Hagel scored twice for the Lightning last night. Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist each, and Nikita Kucherov had two assists. Jonas Johansson made 21 saves.

“It was tough, because we get to the first TV timeout, we’re getting outshot 7-0, and we’re on our heels the whole time,” said Cooper. So, we had a little regroup on the bench, and I thought we got our legs after that and really kind of shut things down.”

The Lightning did not allow a goal at even strength last night. They’ve won four of their past five games and conclude the roadtrip with 6 of a possible 8 points.