Raw Charge
Summary
With Zemgus Girgensons sidelined due to an injury, Coach Jon Cooper had to break up his most relied upon line of the season. Pontus Holmberg took advantage, assisting on three Tampa Bay Lightning goals and then scoring into an empty net to seal a 6-4 win for the Lightning over the Winnipeg Jets. The Lightning took control of the game in the second period after a fairly even first period, and then, in Coach Cooper’s words, “kept their head above water” in the third to hold onto the victory. Brandon Hagel had three points while Conor Geekie scored in his second straight game. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 17-of-21 shots, including two big ones early in the first to pick up the victory. Winnipeg picked up three goals from defenders as they mounted a furious comeback in the final period, scoring three times on eight shots. There were a couple of holes in the Lightning defense early in the game as Isak Rosen turned a turnover in the Tampa Bay zone into a quality chance just a minute into the game. Four minutes later, Mark Scheifele had Andrei Vasilevskiy sprawling in his crease as he shot a puck wide following a Lightning turnover at the offensive blueline. Luckily, in between those two plays, Brayden Point snapped a shot past Stu Skinner to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead. It was one of the few bursts of offense for the Bolts, who had recorded just two shots on goal through the first fourteen minutes of the period. Winnipeg was doing a good job of breaking the Bolts forecheck and clogging up the passing lanes. The Lightning picked up their play with about five minutes to go as they started to control the neutral zone, but it was Winnipeg who tied it with 2:15 to go. An icing led to a Winnipeg face-off win. Tampa Bay had a couple of chances to get control of the puck, but they couldn’t and Neal Pionk ripped a shot past Vasilevskiy from the blue line. A little more offensive pressure from the Lightning to start the second period forced Stuart Skinner to make a couple of quality saves on back-to-back chances from Charle-Edouard D’Astous and John Carlson. More fun in the Winnipeg ensued as the Bolts drew the first power play of the game with young Viggo Bjorck heading to the box for hooking. The first unit was okay, but it was a combination of Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Hagel, Gage Goncalves, D’Astous, and Carlson that almost pushed one across. Hagel had an open look on a backdoor play, but couldn’t quite jam it home. The Bolts would kill off two short-handed opportunities of their own as Ryan McDonagh and Kucherov were whistled for infractions four minutes apart. In between their time spent down a player, the Lightning did take the lead as Alex Iafello fumbled the puck at the red line. Dominic James grabbed it, zoomed into the offensive zone and fed a centering pass to Conor Geekie who backhanded it past Skinner for his third goal of the season, and second in as many games. That opened up the floodgates as Anthony Cirelli converted a cross-crease pass from Pontus Holmberg while getting knocked to the ice for a power play goal. Two minutes after that, it was Holmberg setting up John Carlson in the left circle as the Lightning made it 5-1. D’Astous started the sequence with a big hit on Dawson Mercer. Then Brandon Hagel made a really nice play at the blueline to keep the puck in the zone after his shot was blocked. He got the puck to Holmberg who set up Carlson. A minute later, Holmberg made it a trio of assists as he knocked down a clearing attempt, Cirelli picked up the loose puck and fed it Hagel who put it home. For Cirelli it was his 200th career assist and for the Lightning it was a 5-1 lead. Skinner’s night was over as Nico Daws was between the pipes to start the third period, and he was promptly greeted by a Geekie shot that whistled just past his head and wide. A strong start to the period eroded a bit for the Lightning as Winnipeg scored back-to-back goals off of rushes. First, it was Dylan Samberg who made a nice one-handed redirect that most people only saw on replay because their attention was focused on the Winnipeg end as Brandon Hagel was jawing with Gabe Vilardi after the Winnipeg forward threw an unnecessary hit on Victor Hedman. Two minutes later, Pionk tapped home his second of the night as the Lightning got caught in the neutral zone and Dawson Mercer threaded a pass between Carlson and Jake Guentzel. Just like that, with a little lack of focus, a blowout became a little too close for comfort. The Lightning stopped the bleeding for a little, but after they failed to capitalize on a late power play, Winnipeg pulled Daws for the extra attacker and Kyle Connor made it 5-4 as he snapped a shot past Vasilevskiy for his tenth goal of the season and ninth in sixteen career games against the Bolts. Pontus Holmberg, your first star of the night, took matters into his own hands a few plays later as he corralled a puck just outside of Winnipeg’s zone and slung it into the empty net with 90 seconds left for his career-high fourth point of the night. While not the prettiest ending to the game, the Lightning held on for their sixth straight win at home to extend their winning streak to six games to start the season, matching a franchise record. The Goals Brayden Point (3) [Nikita Kucherov, Jake Guentzel] 1-0 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Brayden Point with 17:40 left in the 1st. Assisted by Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel.TBL: 1 | WPG: 0#WPGvsTBL #GoBolts #GoJetsGo — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-29T23:21:37.475335Z Neal Pionk (2) [Cole Perfetti, Mark Scheifele) 1-1 Winnipeg goal!Scored by Neal Pionk with 02:15 left in the 1st. Assisted by Cole Perfetti and Mark Scheifele.TBL: 1 | WPG: 1#WPGvsTBL #GoBolts #GoJetsGo — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-29T23:52:27.360909Z Conor Geekie (3) [Dominic James] 2-1 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Conor Geekie with 10:17 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Dominic James.TBL: 2 | WPG: 1#WPGvsTBL #GoBolts #GoJetsGo — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T00:33:55.360013Z Anthony Cirelli (4) [Pontus Holmberg, Gage Goncalves] Power Play, 3-1 Lightning Power play goal for Tampa Bay!Scored by Anthony Cirelli with 04:04 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Pontus Holmberg and Gage Goncalves.TBL: 3 | WPG: 1#WPGvsTBL #GoBolts #GoJetsGo — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T00:51:35.422047Z John Carlson (4) [Pontus Holmberg, Brandon Hagel] 4-1 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by John Carlson with 01:53 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Pontus Holmberg and Brandon Hagel.TBL: 4 | WPG: 1#WPGvsTBL #GoBolts #GoJetsGo — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T00:52:19.597479Z Brandon Hagel (8) [Anthony Cirelli, Pontus Holmberg] 5-1 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Brandon Hagel with 00:57 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Anthony Cirelli and Pontus Holmberg.TBL: 5 | WPG: 1#WPGvsTBL #GoBolts #GoJetsGo — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T01:02:23.572374Z Dylan Samberg (1) [Cole Perfetti, Mark Scheifele] 5-2 Lightning Winnipeg goal!Scored by Dylan Samberg with 13:00 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Cole Perfetti and Mark Scheifele.TBL: 5 | WPG: 2#WPGvsTBL #GoBolts #GoJetsGo — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T01:33:07.114133Z Neal Pionk (3) [Dawson Mercer, Kyle Connor] 5-3 Lightning Winnipeg goal!Scored by Neal Pionk with 11:10 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Dawson Mercer and Kyle Connor.TBL: 5 | WPG: 3#WPGvsTBL #GoBolts #GoJetsGo — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T01:44:03.862333Z Kyle Connor (10) [Mark Scheifele, Dylan Samberg] 5-4 Lightning Pontus Holmberg (4) [Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel] Empty Net, 6-4 Lightning Empty net goal for Tampa Bay!Scored by Pontus Holmberg with 01:31 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel.TBL: 6 | WPG: 4#WPGvsTBL #GoBolts #GoJetsGo — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-10-30T01:54:43.408159Z