Blue Jackets defeat the Lightning

The Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Lightning 8-5 in a game that wasn’t close from a Lightning perspective. The Lightning were trailing the whole game tonight due to bad goal tending. The Lightning now fall to 32-14-4 on the season falling to 2nd place in the Atlantic Division.

There was plenty of goals scored in the opening period of tonight’s game just not in the Lightning's favor. The Blue Jackets put on a clinic in the opening period of this game. Cole Sillinger would get the party started with his 6th goal of the season assisted by Charlie Coyle just 6 minutes into the game. Jake Guentzel would tie this game with his 23rd goal of the season with 12:12 remaining in the 1st period. The Blue Jackets would take the lead with Mason Marchment scoring his 10th of the season assisted by Erik Gudbranson with 11:23 remaining in the period. Darren Raddysh would score his 13th goal of the season assisted by Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel tying the game 2-2 on the power play. The Blue Jackets would keep scoring a few more goals to end the period. Adam Fantilli would add his 13th of the season assisted by Kirill Marchenko and Mason Marchment. Dmitri Voronkov would add his 17th of the season giving the Jackets a 4-2 lead to end the 1st period.

The Lightning entered the 2nd period of this game down 4-2 to the Blue Jackets barring any magic. Nikita Kucherov would add his 26th of the season assisted by Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli. The Lightning would tie this game for a very short stretch. Anthony Cirelli would add his 14th of the season assisted by Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel. From here, it was all Blue Jackets the rest of the way. Mason Marchment would add his second goal of the game his 11th of the season assisted by Zach Werenski and Charlie Coyle. Charlie Coyle would add another goal with his 11th goal of the season assisted by Adam Fantilli and Zach Werenski.

The Lightning trailed 6-4 going into the final period of regulation against the Blue Jackets. The Blue Jackets would add a couple more goals to their tally. Sean Monahan would add his 8th goal of the season on an empty net. Jake Guentzel would add his 2nd goal of the game his 24th of the season assisted by Nikita Kucherov and Anthony Cirelli in garbage time making it 7-5 with 65 seconds left in the game. Mason Marchment would ice the game with a hat trick giving him 12 goals on the season.

The Three Stars of tonight’s game belong to :

• Mason Marchment 3 goals 1 assist

• Nikita Kucherov 1 goal 3 assists

• Adam Fantilli 1 goal 2 assists

The Lightning will now return home for homestand beginning with the Utah Mammoth on Monday January 26th at 7:00 pm ET in Tampa Bay.