Thursday, 4 a.m.
Finally, this is the guy the Tampa Bay Lightning traded for.
When Brandon Hagel was acquired by the Bolts at the last trading deadline, the team hoped he could help balance out the team's scoring attack. Well, not so much. After scoring 21 goals for Chicago, Hagel had just four for the Bolts.
Now, he seems to have regained his touch.
Hagel scored in his third straight game Thursday night, leading the Bolts to a 4-2 victory over Anaheim. His goal snapped a 2-2 tie with 4:27 left to play.
“We needed that," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We thought last night was a good 35 minutes, but we let that game slip away because we got out of the structure we needed to play to win."
Start with the goaltender. Backup Brian Elliott didn't have a lot of work (21 shots), but he made the timely saves. It helped that the Ducks had just four shots in the first period and seven in the third.
The Lightning also got goals from Mikhail Sergachev, Nikita Kucherov and Nick Paul (empty-netter).
The Bolts play in San Jose on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m.