Hagel Scored Twice in 21 Seconds — Tampa Bay Stole the Finish From New York
GOATIFYFor almost an entire period, Tampa Bay had to live with the consequences of a lead it could not protect. The Lightning raced two goals clear, rebuilt their cushion after New York struck back, and still entered the third period locked at 3-3. Then Brandon Hagel changed the outcome in 21 seconds.
His shot through traffic with 1:44 remaining put Tampa Bay ahead. An empty-net finish 21 seconds later completed his hat trick and turned a precarious road test into a 5-3 victory over the Islanders on October 10. Hagel finished with four points, Jake Guentzel scored twice, and the Lightning extended their winning streak to four games after an opening-night defeat.
The score makes it look as though Tampa Bay eventually imposed its will. The more interesting story is how narrowly it escaped: New York's young defenseman Matthew Schaefer drove a furious middle-period comeback, Ilya Sorokin kept the tie intact deep into the third, and Andrei Vasilevskiy had to make several saves that mattered as much as the goals. This was a win earned at both ends, not a comfortable three-goal cruise.
Twenty-one seconds separated a deadlock from a hat trick
With the score level late in regulation, New York had done enough to make a point seem possible. The Islanders had erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-1, and Sorokin had survived a Tampa Bay chance from Zemgus Girgensons early in the third. The Lightning were no longer playing with the clean territorial advantage they had enjoyed in the opening period. One breakdown or one individual play could settle it.
Hagel provided that individual play at 18:16. He carried into the attacking zone, recognized that Anthony Cirelli was moving across Sorokin's sightline and released a shot that traveled through the traffic. The goaltender reacted, but the puck beat him on the blocker side. It was not a spectacular deke or an uncontested one-timer; it was the sort of finish that rewards a scorer for reading bodies between himself and the net. Hagel understood that a partially screened attempt can be more dangerous than waiting for an ideal lane that never opens.
That goal also rewarded Tampa Bay's patience. The Lightning had not dominated the third period, yet they had kept the game within reach by limiting the damage when the Islanders pressed. The score moved from 3-3 to 4-3 with just 104 seconds left. New York had to gamble immediately, creating the conditions for a second Hagel finish. Twenty-one seconds after the winner, he sent the puck into the empty net. His fourth career NHL hat trick was complete, and the final score suddenly looked more decisive than the preceding 58 minutes had felt.
Hagel's first goal had been a very different expression of the same skill set. At 15:42 of the opening period, Victor Hedman sent a long puck through neutral ice. Hagel accelerated into the available space, cut across the front of goal and beat Sorokin high to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 advantage. One goal came from speed and directness, another from using a screen, and the last from finishing an exposed-net opportunity. That variety is what made the performance more revealing than a hat-trick headline alone.
His assist on Guentzel's second-period power-play goal completed a four-point night. The late goals are the lasting image, but the broader contribution mattered: Hagel was involved in three different phases of Tampa Bay's scoring and played the kind of high-energy minutes that can sustain a team even when its structure briefly frays. For a club trying to establish its early-season identity, the important takeaway is not that every lead will be safe. It is that its best players can still identify the winning moment when the game stops following the original plan.
Schaefer and the Islanders made the middle period a genuine test
The Islanders' comeback was not a statistical curiosity created by one fortunate bounce. Their first period was poor enough to put them in a hole, but the next twenty minutes showed how their pace and offensive-zone movement could trouble an experienced opponent. Tony DeAngelo began the recovery at 6:27 of the second, sending a point shot through traffic to reduce the deficit to 2-1. The goal mattered because it arrived after New York had started to hold possession for longer stretches instead of merely reacting to Tampa Bay's entries.
Guentzel answered on the power play just 87 seconds later, converting from close range after Nikita Kucherov found him in space. At 3-1, the Lightning appeared to have restored control. But New York's pressure did not disappear. Schaefer, the Islanders' teenage defenseman, created a dangerous shooting lane from the blue line and helped produce the goal credited to Jean-Gabriel Pageau at 11:41. Schaefer's puck movement and willingness to change his angle made the sequence possible, whether the final touch belonged to the shooter or the forward near the net.
New York's third goal came with seven seconds left in the period. Brayden Schenn finished a power-play play near the crease, the puck changing direction off Erik Cernak on its way past Vasilevskiy. The equalizer was the culmination of sustained effort rather than a sudden counterattack. It also showed why the Islanders could not be dismissed after their shaky start: they had enough movement, traffic and composure to challenge a defense that normally relies on experienced positioning.
Schaefer was central to that response. His ability to carry the puck laterally along the blue line forced Tampa Bay's forwards to turn and recover instead of setting their feet. New York's defense generated offense without abandoning every layer behind the puck. In the game, Schaefer logged more than 27 minutes and continued to look comfortable carrying major responsibility at nineteen. That is meaningful context for a team still learning how much offense it can ask its young star to create.
There were encouraging signs beyond one player. The Islanders scored on the power play, used a more aggressive forecheck after their slow opening, and made the Lightning spend longer defending than Tampa Bay would have preferred. But New York also exposed its own margin for error. The early turnover that led to Guentzel's opener, the difficulty containing Hagel's first-period burst, and the late screened shot all became expensive moments in a game that was otherwise balanced enough to go either way.
That tension explains why the defeat can be both frustrating and instructive. New York demonstrated it could recover against an opponent with elite finishers, yet recovery alone did not deliver points. A comeback from two goals down is valuable evidence of resilience. Avoiding the two-goal hole in the first place, and recognizing a screened late shot before it leaves the stick, are the next steps toward turning a promising stretch into a full sixty-minute performance.
Guentzel, Vasilevskiy and the veteran core kept Tampa alive
Hagel owned the final two minutes, but Tampa Bay did not reach that moment on his goals alone. Guentzel supplied the early scoring that established the game's shape. At 5:45 of the first period, he capitalized on a Jean-Gabriel Pageau turnover near the boards, moved into a better shooting lane and finished past Sorokin. The opening goal put New York under immediate pressure and forced the home team to chase a faster game than it wanted.
Guentzel's second was a different kind of finish. On a second-period power play, Kucherov created the passing angle from the right side and found Guentzel close to goal. A quick conversion made it 3-1 and briefly halted the Islanders' momentum. The play demonstrated why Tampa Bay remains dangerous even when its five-on-five rhythm slips: an established scorer can occupy a soft pocket while an elite passer draws the defensive attention elsewhere. It was also a useful contribution from a power-play unit that had been seeking consistency early in the campaign.
Vasilevskiy's contribution is harder to express through a single scoring play. He stopped 20 shots, including a Bo Horvat breakaway in the first and a dangerous Anthony Duclair wraparound in the third. The latter save was especially important. With the score 3-3, the Lightning goaltender used his skate to deny a chance that could have changed the direction of the game before Hagel ever found his late shooting lane. Goaltending often appears in a recap as a line of saves and goals against. Here, the timing of the stops was the real story.
The win was Vasilevskiy's 373rd in the NHL, moving him past Andy Moog on the all-time victories list. It also continued an important pattern for Tampa Bay: the team can rely on a goalie capable of erasing a defensive mistake even in a game when the opposition has established real momentum. That is not permission to concede dangerous chances. It is an advantage that buys time for scorers such as Hagel, Guentzel and Kucherov to decide a close contest.
Hedman's first-period assist added another milestone. It was his 812th career point, taking him past Sergei Gonchar for third among NHL defensemen born outside North America. The detail is more than trivia in this particular game. Tampa Bay's core remains anchored by players who have accumulated years of experience and can still produce important actions at speed. Hedman's long pass helped create Hagel's first goal, while Kucherov contributed to the scoring without needing to dominate the highlight reel himself.
Four consecutive victories after an opening defeat give the Lightning an encouraging start, but they should not obscure the imperfections. A 3-1 lead became a 3-3 tie in one period, and the club had to survive a series of New York pushes before reclaiming the advantage. The encouraging part is that the response was not frantic. Tampa Bay absorbed pressure, leaned on its goalie, and trusted a forward who had already shown he could beat defenders in several ways. It is a repeatable formula only if the defensive lapses become less frequent; otherwise, even elite finishing will eventually fail to rescue every game.
Hagel's hat trick will be remembered for its ending: two goals 21 seconds apart, a road crowd silenced, and a tie converted into a 5-3 win. But the most useful lesson for Tampa Bay came from everything that preceded it. The Lightning had to solve a game that changed shape, and their answer involved speed, timely goaltending, veteran playmaking and one forward's willingness to shoot through a crowded lane.
For the Islanders, Schaefer's confidence and the three-goal middle period offered genuine encouragement. The late finish still exposed the price of an uneven start and a brief lapse in defensive coverage. Both teams left UBS Arena with evidence about what works. Only one left with the points, because Hagel recognized the decisive opening before New York could close it.
