Guentzel, Hagel drive Lightning past Islanders after New York’s comeback stalls

Tampa’s head start mattered

The Lightning gave themselves room early, and that cushion turned out to be the difference. Guentzel opened the scoring at 5:45 of the first period with an unassisted wrist shot, then Hagel doubled the lead at 15:42 when he finished a play set up by Victor Hedman and Max Crozier.

That first period did not overwhelm New York in raw volume. Tampa finished the night with only a one-shot edge, 24-23, and the faceoff count was nearly even at 25-24. But the Lightning were cleaner in the moments that counted most at the start, and the Islanders spent the rest of the evening trying to repair the damage.

New York finally cut into the lead at 6:27 of the second when Tony DeAngelo scored on a wrist shot off an Ondrej Palat assist. The response should have changed the tone of the night. Instead, Tampa restored its two-goal margin only 87 seconds later. Guentzel struck again at 7:54, with Nikita Kucherov and Hagel collecting the assists, and the game was back under Lightning control at 3-1.

The Islanders forced their way back

To the Islanders’ credit, that could have been the point where the game slipped away. It did not. Matthew Schaefer pulled New York within one at 11:41 of the second, taking assists from DeAngelo and Palat, and the building had a real comeback to chase.

The equalizer arrived in the final seconds of the period. With 19:53 on the clock, Brayden Schenn tipped home a chance created by Bo Horvat and Matias Maccelli, tying the game 3-3 and wiping out the full two-goal deficit Tampa had built in the first.

That stretch was New York’s best work of the night. The Islanders got goals from three different players, DeAngelo finished with a goal and an assist, and Palat added two assists. Their 29 hits and 15 blocked shots also reflected a team that stayed engaged after the slow opening and gave itself a legitimate chance to turn the game around.

Our take

The problem for New York is that the comeback only got them back to even. Tampa owned the third period on the scoreboard, scoring twice while shutting the Islanders out, and that is the part of the night the visitors will value most. After allowing a 3-1 lead to disappear in the second, the Lightning still found the extra finish required to settle the game before the final horn.

Hagel and Guentzel drove that result. Between them they supplied four of Tampa Bay’s five goals, with Hagel also adding an assist for a three-point night. Crozier chipped in two assists from the blue line, and Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 20 saves on 23 shots. In a game without a wide statistical gap, those individual contributions gave Tampa the sharper edge.

This is the kind of scoreline that reminds both clubs where improvement starts. The Islanders were close enough in shots, faceoffs and special teams to argue this was not a one-sided game. They converted once on two power-play chances, the Lightning went one-for-four, and the faceoff split was nearly dead even. But New York also finished with 18 giveaways and 13 penalty minutes. When a game is this tight elsewhere, those extra mistakes are costly.

From Tampa’s side, the win is real and the finishing was high-end, but the middle portion of the game still deserves scrutiny. A team that leads 3-1 and then watches that margin vanish in one period has not played a complete game, no matter how well it closes. For the Islanders, the lesson is almost the mirror image: the resilience was there, the push was genuine, and the second period proved it, but spotting a skilled opponent a 2-0 lead left too much to recover. Saturday’s game was close enough to offer encouragement in New York and convincing enough to count as a quality road finish for Tampa Bay.

Scoring moments

1. 1st · 5:45

   Jake Guentzel Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: none

2. 1st · 15:42

   Brandon Hagel Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Victor Hedman (1), Max Crozier (1)

3. 2nd · 6:27

   Tony DeAngelo Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Ondrej Palat (1)

4. 2nd · 7:54

   Jake Guentzel Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Nikita Kucherov (6), Brandon Hagel (4)

5. 2nd · 11:41

   Matthew Schaefer Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Tony DeAngelo (1), Ondrej Palat (2)

6. 2nd · 19:53

   Brayden Schenn Goal (2) Tip-In, assists: Bo Horvat (2), Matias Maccelli (3)