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The Tampa Bay Lightning came away with an 8-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday, and Brandon Hagel recorded a career-high five assists in the game, with four of them coming in the first period. That tied a league record, and Hagel spoke on putting himself in elite company with his performance.
“After the game they said I was involved with [Mario] Lemieux and [Wayne] Gretzky somehow,” Brandon Hagel said, via Corey Long of NHL.com. “I think tonight we came out and we stuck with it from the puck drop. Everyone in this room played the right way. If we can play like that every game, good things are going to happen.”
Hagel also tied the record for the most assists in a game in Lightning history, and head coach Jon Cooper raved about his versatility when speaking about his performance.
“For him to get those points shorthanded, power-play and 5-versus-5 just shows the versatility of the kid,” Jon Cooper said, via Long. “But he'll be the first one to put the accolades on his teammates.”
Jake Guentzel scored twice, while Nikita Kucherov, Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point and Michael Eyssimont also scored in the game. Hagel obviously did a lot of facilitating on most of those goals.
For the Lightning, it was about continuing the good effort from the last game against the Stars, despite the result, as Cooper explained.
“We played a really good team in Dallas a couple night ago and the result was really unfortunate,” Cooper said, via Long. “A couple of minutes there we wish we could take back, but the totality of the game we did a lot of good things. That was our message today: You keep doing those things and you're going to win more than you lose. I give a ton of credit to the guys for sticking with it.”
Lightning look to build off of win over Avalanche
After the game against the Avalanche, the Lightning will host the Washington Capitals on Wednesday before heading on the road to play the Nashville Predators. Tampa Bay is currently 11-7-2, four points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs in first place in the Atlantic Division, and one point behind the Florida Panthers for second place.
The top of the division is up for grabs for the Lightning. It will be interesting to see if they can make a run for it after suffering a bit of a decline last season before a first-round exit.
