On Saturday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning visited the Columbus Blue Jackets on the second-half of their back-to-back following a game in Chicago the previous night.
The Blue Jackets were celebrating their 25th anniversary, acknowledging some alumni, including former Lightning forward Cam Atkinson, before puck drop.
Columbus took a 109 lead with 14:13 remaining in the first period, as Cole Sillinger, son of former Lightning center Mike Sillinger, scored his sixth of the season and gave the Blue Jackets an early 1-0 lead.
It wouldn’t take long for the Lightning to tie things up, as a dump in by Jake Guentzel landed on the stick of Columbus’s goaltender Jet Greaves, who accidentally passed the puck off of the skate of Isac Lundestrom. The puck deflected off of Lundestrom and into the back of the net, with the goal officially credited to Jake Guentzel, his 23rd of the season.
Simon Lundmark, who was making his NHL debut, and goaltender Jonas Johansson were initially credited with assists on the play, which would have been their first career points. The NHL ultimately removed the assists upon review, meaning both players will still be on the hunt for their first point.
Just moments later, Mason Marchment, who joined the Blue Jackets via trade in December, answered back with his 10th goal of the season, restoring the Blue Jackets’ one-goal lead and making it 2-1 for the home team.
Blue Jackets defenseman Ivan Provorov tripped up Lightning forward Brandon Hagel around the halfway point of the first period, giving Tampa Bay their first power play opportunity of the night. Darren Raddysh’s lethal shot would come through for the Bolts, as a quick one-timer beat Greaves, tying the game up at 2-2.
Blue Jackets forward Dmitry Voronkov was called for interference with 6:47 remaining in the first, giving the Lightning an opportunity to take the lead for the first time of the night. The Lightning would be unable to convert on the power play.
Erik Cernak was hit hard by Mathieu Olivier late in the period and was down for quite a while as he got attention from medical staff. Eventually, Cernak would make his way off the ice under his own power and went down the tunnel immediately. No penalty was called on the play.
Adam Fantilli of the Blue Jackets scored his first goal in 18 games to break the tie following a turnover in the corner by J.J. Moser, giving Columbus a 3-2 lead. Voronkov would score on a breakaway with seconds remaining in the period to make it 4-2.
The Blue Jackets would carry that lead into the intermission.
Sillinger nearly scored his second of the night a minute into the second period, but was stopped by Johansson.
Nikita Kucherov brought the Lightning within a single goal with 16:31 remaining in the period. He backhanded the puck past Greaves on the rush, following a pass from a falling Brandon Hagel.
A couple of minutes later, Anthony Cirelli tied it up at 4-4 with his 14th goal of the season. Within five minutes, the Lightning had gone from trailing two goals to a tied hockey game.
Yanni Gourde and Marchment both got minor penalties just under seven minutes into the period, resulting in two minutes of four-on-four hockey. This scrum resulted in the physicality of the game increasing significantly, as quite a few more would follow in the second period.
Marchment scored his second of the night just moments after he came out of the penalty box, giving the Blue Jackets a 5-4 lead.
At some point in the second period, forward Gage Goncalves left the Lightning bench.
Nick Paul had a couple of chances on a breakaway late in the second, but both his initial shot and the rebound attempt were denied by Greaves.
The Blue Jackets then got their first power play opportunity of the night when Fantilli was tripped up by Declan Carlile. The Lightning killed it off, but shortly afterwards Charle-Edouard D’Astous was called for delay of game, and this time the Blue Jackets took advantage. Charlie Coyle scored his 200th career goal to make it 6-4 in his 1001st career game.
The Blue Jackets would carry that lead into the third period; as a result, the Lightning were going to have quite an uphill battle in the final 20 minutes if they wanted to maintain their 15-game point streak.
D’Astous became the third player to leave the game for the Lightning during the third period, which left the already depleted blue line with just four defensemen for the remainder of the night.
Moments after the Lightning pulled the goalie with just over five minutes remaining, Sean Monahan scored a long-distance empty net goal to make it 7-4 for Columbus, putting the final nail in the coffin for Tampa Bay’s point streak. The fight never left the Lightning though, as with just over a minute remaining, Guentzel scored to make it 7-5.
Marchment would complete his hat-trick with another empty net goal with 24.4 seconds remaining, making it 8-5 for Columbus.
The Lightning will be back at home on Monday as they look to start a new point streak against the Utah Mammoth.