Injury-plagued Lightning sweep road back-to-back with win in Columbus

COLUMBUS, OHIO — One night after scoring a season-high eight goals in a nationally televised win against a division rival, the Lightning were back in action Thursday playing a struggling Blue Jackets team in a half-full Nationwide Arena. As Tampa Bay arrived in Columbus looking for a back-to-back road sweep, the lineup it iced was far from at full strength. The 3-1 win was very much a survive-and-advance kind of game, and the Lightning did what they needed to pull out all four points of the back-to-back. They broke open a game that was tied going into the third with goals from Jake Guentzel and Brandon Hagel in the first 7:41 of the period to put the Blue Jackets away. Hagel had two goals and an assist, running his team-high goal total to 13. Lightning backup goaltender Dennis Hildeby made 28 saves on 29 shots, improving his record to 4-0-1. The Lightning have won five of their last six games and have points in eight of their last night nine, going 6-1-2. They already were without top-line center Brayden Point, who is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. Defenseman Erik Cernak didn’t play after exiting Wednesday’s game in Buffalo early when he took a hit into the curved boards at the end of the Lightning bench. Center Anthony Cirelli was a surprise absence, missing his first game of the season with an upper-body injury. It seemed like Cirelli had been dealing with something physical, as he didn’t take any faceoffs Sunday in Winnipeg and averaged a little over 15 minutes a game over the past four. Center Yanni Gourde was already scheduled to sit out the second half of the back-to-back as he returns from hip resurfacing surgery, leaving the Lightning without three of their centers. Guentzel, who typically plays on the wing, was moved into the top-line center role in his 700th career NHL game. He filled in for Cirelli on the top penalty-killing unit, alongside Hagel. Games between these teams in Columbus can get wild, and the Lightning had lost three straight in the arena, outscored by a combined 18-13. But they avoided a track meet Thursday. Guentzel’s goal from near the left hash on the first shift of the third period was a dagger. Hagel scored immediately after a long Columbus shift in the Lightning end that netted the Blue Jackets nothing.