Lightning 3, Wild 2 on October 8, 2026

Recap

On October 8, 2026, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Minnesota Wild 3-2 at Benchmark International Arena. John Carlson scored his first two goals since signing a two-year contract with Tampa Bay on July 1, including a power-play strike at 4:55 of the second off a pass from Nikita Kucherov. Anthony Cirelli opened the scoring at 5:26 of the first on a redirection of Erik Cernak's point shot.

Carlson made it 2-0 36 seconds later with a screened wrist shot from the point. Quinn Hughes cut the deficit to 2-1 at 2:32 of the second with a shot through traffic from the center point. Blake Coleman scored on the power play at 14:01 to pull Minnesota within 3-2 after a setup from Kirill Kaprizov.

Kucherov had two assists for Tampa Bay, which won all three games on its homestand and improved to 3-1-0. Dennis Hildeby made 34 saves in his Lightning debut after being acquired from Toronto on July 1. Jesper Wallstedt had 32 saves for the Wild, who fell to 2-1-1 and have lost two straight.

Scoring

Tampa Bay Lightning won 3–2 at Benchmark International Arena.

Who scored

• Anthony Cirelli Goal (1) Tip-In, assists: Erik Cernak (1), Brandon Hagel (3)
• John Carlson Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Nikita Kucherov (4), Brayden Point (2)
• Quinn Hughes Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Bobby Brink (3), Jared Spurgeon (3)
• John Carlson Goal (2) Slap Shot, assists: Nikita Kucherov (5), Jake Guentzel (3)
• Blake Coleman Goal (2) Wrist Shot, assists: Kirill Kaprizov (1), Quinn Hughes (4)

Goalies

• Jesper Wallstedt stopped 32 of 35 for Minnesota Wild.
• Dennis Hildeby stopped 34 of 36 for Tampa Bay Lightning.

Anthony Cirelli Goal (1) Tip-In, assists: Erik Cernak (1), Brandon Hagel (3) That made the score 0–1 in the 1st, and Tampa Bay Lightning stayed ahead.