Blues defeat the Lightning 3-2 in a heartbreaker
- Dan Carlin
- Jan 16
- 3 min read
The Tampa Bay Lightning fought back against the St.Louis Blues on Friday January 16th, 2026 in St. Louis and fell short in the end. Tampa Bays impressive run came to an end.
There was plenty of action to go along with in the 1st period of tonight’s game with the Blues. There were very few positives for the Lightning in the 1st period. The Lightning outshot the Blues in the 1st period of regulation 11-7. The other positive that went in favor of the Lightning would be they won in the face off circle in the opening frame of the game.
As for the negatives, the Lightning were trailing 2-0 heading into the 2nd period of the game. The St. Louis Blues were able to capitalize off goals from Jake Neighbours and Nick Bjugstad in 30 seconds. Neighbours was able to get into open space and put away his 12th goal of the season assisted by Jordan Kyrou and Cam Fowler over the outstretched Andrei Vasilevskiy.
At one end of the ice , it looked as the Lightning were going to get one back on a shot by Nikita Kucherov, however Joel Hofer was able to make a stop. Nick Bjugstad would score his 6th goal of the season on a great pass by Pavel Buchnevich.
The Lightning entered the 2nd period trailing 2-0 due to goals from Neighbours and Bjugstad. The Lightning continued their dominance in the shot department outshooting the Blues 15-5. The Lightning were for the most part facing brick wall in Joel Hofer who was standing on his head for the most part of the 2nd period until the Lightning were able to strike twice to tie the game. Tampa Bay would score twice both coming on the man advantage. Nikita Kucherov would find the back of the net for his 24th goal of the season. Kucherov would get assists from Brandon Hagel and Darren Raddysh with 10:01 minutes remaining in the period.
Within two minutes after the Nikita Kucherov goal, Tampa Bay would score again on the man advantage. This time Oliver Bjorkstrand would score his 7th goal of the season assisted by Nikita Kucherov and Darren Raddysh. On both goals, Nikita Kucherov and Darren Raddysh registered a multipoint games yet again. The Lightning were facing adversity being down 2-0 and to tie the game shows the confidence in their roster.
The third period of this game for the most part was quiet for both sides. There was no goals scored in the 3rd period of this game which is good and bad for both teams however you want to look at it as a fan. You obviously want to score goals to win, but when a goalie is standing on his head for the entire game there’s nothing you can do to avoid that situation. Joel Hofer put on a clinic all game long stopping everything other than those two power play goals in the 2nd period of tonight’s game.
This game would go to a 4th period in overtime where both goalies stopped everything that was in front of them. Joel Hofer kept making stop after stop allowing the Blues to stay in this game.
Overtime was not enough to settle this game, which would bring on a shootout where ultimately the Lightning would come up short to the Blues. Joel Hofer deserves a lot of credit for his performance in net tonight for the Blues. The Lightning had a chance to extend the shootout, but Joel Hofer would yet again come up huge for the St.Louis Blues to seal the victory. This marks end the of a 11 game win streak for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
If I were to give my 3 stars of the game, it would most definitely go to Joel Hofer , Nikita Kucherov, and Darren Raddysh. Joel Hofer finished tonight’s game with 34 saves on 36 shots and a .944 save percentage. Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist. Darren Raddysh contributed 2 assists.
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