The Tampa Bay Lightning visited the Anaheim Ducks for a New Year’s Eve matchup to conclude 2025. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was coaching his 1,000th NHL game, and his team would certainly be looking for a celebratory win. The Ducks were coming off a rough spell — four losses in their last five games — and were looking to redeem themselves to end the year. Lukas Dostal started in the net for the home team, mirrored by Andrei Vasilevskiy on the other end.
First Period
The first period was a hard-fought one on both sides. While the Lightning thought they took an early-period lead, Nikita Kucherov’s goal was called back due to being offside. Finally, late in the period, they did take that lead. J.J. Moser slipped one past Dostal, assisted by Darren Raddysh and Brandon Hagel.
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No penalties were taken in the opening 20 minutes. The Lightning’s 1-0 lead came from seven shots on goal to the Ducks’ six. The teams were nearly even in their physicality, too — eight hits from the Lightning and nine from the Ducks.
Second Period
The first penalty of the game was taken by the Ducks — a tripping penalty on Olen Zellweger. The Lightning did not score on their power play. Anaheim got on the board after Ross Johnston secured a puck off a turnover and fed it to Jansen Harkins, who scored from a bad angle. Shortly after the goal, Anaheim went on a power play when Max Crozier was called for holding.
The Lightning killed the penalty and later took a 2-1 lead in the final minute of the period. Brayden Point tipped the puck in, assisted by Crozier and Kucherov. Tampa Bay finished the period with nine shots on goal, Anaheim with seven.
Third Period
The Ducks made a push early in the third to close the gap. Beckett Sennecke tied it up, unassisted. Chris Kreider took a tripping penalty shortly after the goal to give the Lightning their second power play of the game. Kucherov took advantage of the man-advantage and fired a powerful one-timer past Dostal to give his team a one-goal lead.
The Ducks had another power play opportunity when Hagel took a holding penalty. Just as that penalty expired, Yanni Gourde was assessed a slashing penalty to give the Ducks back-to-back power-play chances. Mason McTavish tied the game with the advantage after an impressive defensive play and pass from Pavel Mintyukov.
Mintyukov was assessed an interference penalty just minutes after the goal, giving the Lightning another power play. They did not score. Despite a late effort from the Ducks, the game went into overtime tied 3-3. 2:47 into overtime, Raddysh scored the game-winner, assisted by Hagel.
Though they fought hard, it was not enough for the Ducks, and their losing streak extended to three. They face the Minnesota Wild at home on Friday. Cooper earned a win in his 1,000th game, and the Lightning will go on to face the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow.
