Darren Raddysh tallied 2:47 into overtime and the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning closed out 2025 with a 4-3 New Year’s Eve afternoon win over the Anaheim Ducks.
The defenseman took a feed from Brandon Hagel and flipped in the game-winner, beating Lukas Dostal (25 saves) after the goaltender stopped Anthony Cirelli one-on-one with no Ducks player nearby shortly before.
In their fifth straight win, the Lightning opened the three-game West Coast road swing by receiving goals from J.J. Moser, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov.
Kucherov and Raddysh also added assists. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 shots, and Hagel assisted on three goals.
Coach Jon Cooper was behind the bench for his 1,000th NHL game as Tampa Bay went 7-6-1 in December.
Jansen Harkins, Beckett Sennecke and Mason McTavish scored, but Anaheim fell to 1-4-2 in its past seven.
Tampa Bay defenseman Erik Cernak (hand) was back in the lineup for the first time since Nov. 22, but Anaheim blue-liner Radko Gudas (illness) missed his second straight match.
At 11:19 of the second meeting between the clubs, Point scored at the far post, but he crossed into the offensive zone early after Nikita Kucherov fumbled the puck near the blue line. The Western Conference squad successfully challenged for offside, and the goal was taken off the board.
However, a strong series of passing led to Moser letting Ducks defenseman Ian Moore slide by through the left circle before ripping in the match’s first marker at 13:30.
Late in the second, Lightning defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous coughed up the puck trying to leave the defensive end, and Ross Johnston intercepted it. Harkins tied it with a sharp-angle goal on a two-on-one at 15:17.
Point regained the lead with 49 seconds left by chipping in a wide shot by Max Crozier for a 2-1 edge after 40 minutes.
Sennecke notched his 12th goal, the most among rookies, to tie it 2-all at 3:57 into the third, but Kucherov one-timed the tiebreaking tally from the right circle on his club’s second man advantage.
On his team’s third power play, Pavel Mintyukov made a great play keeping the puck in the offensive zone, and McTavish knotted it for a third time at 13:02.
–Field Level Media
