In Chicago Sunday night, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning put on a shooting clinic in the second period; the Bolts took 33 shots in the middle frame and struck three times for a 6-3 win over the Blackhawks.
The feat is a new NHL record.
“I don’t know, I guess it feels good,” Lightning forward Tyler Johnson said of setting the record. “It’s what we try to do every period. We always try to say get that shot volume. We’re getting pucks to the net, we’re getting those [quality] opportunities. We just have that mentality. We’re a good team when we have that.”
Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman had goals and multi-point nights for the Lightning.
Louis Domingue made 33 saves for the win.
Alexandre Fortin (first career NHL goal), David Kampf and Nick Schmaltz picked up the Blackhawks goals.
“It’s fun,” Fortin said. “I think it would be a little bit more fun to get your first goal [while getting] two points for your team, but I think we just have to [turn the page to the] next chapter and just play and be ready for next game and just as a team be ready, find a way to just play three periods.”
Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde and Ryan Callahan added goals for Tampa in the win.
“I think we didn’t like the way we finished the first period and we really came back strong in the second period. We wanted to shoot pucks at the net and be around the crease and that creates a lot of opportunities, and I think that’s what we did in the second period,” said Gourde of the second period outburst.
The Bolts took a franchise best 55 shots for the game.
“That was a tough, tough period in all aspects. I don’t think we touched the puck at all, and that was the part that was disturbing against a good hockey team. Pucks went through us, nobody got knocked down around our net, they had two or three A-plus opportunities on almost every shot. That’s the part you can’t let happen,” Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said after the game.
[WATCH: All Lightning vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Cam Ward made 49 saves in the loss.
“They’re a tough team,” Ward said. “They have a lot of offensive talent out there. It was tough to contain them. Both teams were coming off of a back-to-back, so we couldn’t use that as an excuse. Their speed and their tenacity was hard to contain at times. It’s unfortunate, but we’ll regroup here and put this one away and get ready for the next one.”
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