In Tampa, the Chicago Blackhawks Connor Bedard hit for a double and four points in a 5-3 win over the Lightning Thursday night.
“I felt like there were games when I could have created more than this and I had zero points,” Bedard said. “You never know. I think it’s just kind of sticking with it. That’s how things go sometimes. It feels good to get on the score sheet.”
Chicago improved to 5-7-0.
“We weren’t happy with our effort Sunday (4-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils),” Bedard said. “To come out and beat a team like that — playing against them, you can see why they’ve done what they’ve done in the past few years. To get a win against them is big.”
Petr Mrazek made 30 saves in the win.
Anthony Cirelli staked the Lightning to a 1-0 lead off a power play strike at 3:20 of the first period.
“It’s little things that we’ve got to clean up,” Cirelli said. “… Turnovers. We’ve got to be better in our own zone. Those things are on us. It’s nothing system-wise, we’ve just got to go out and execute.”
Bedard scored his fist of the game at 4:42 to tie it, 1-1.
“He created the whole first goal,” Richardson said of Bedard. “He was hard on the defenseman, and he has a good stick, good stick skills. He’s not in there slashing; he’s lifting sticks and disrupting things. Good things happen when you play hard in the right way.”
The Lightning dropped to 6-4-4.
Tampa reclaimed the lead on a marker from Nikita Kucherov, 2-1, at 12:31,
Chicago’s Kevin Korchinski tied it, 2-2, at 16:43, they reclaimed the lead at 17:38 on a strike by Tyler Johnson for a 3-2 advantage.
“The first 10 minutes they were possessing the puck,” Bedard said. “We showed patience and waited for their mistakes. The guys did great things, and I got the benefits.”
With eight seconds left in the frame, Bedard pushed the lead to 4-2.
Corey Perry ballooned the lead to 5-2 at 2:12 of the middle frame with a power play marker.
Tampa got one back late in the third on a goal from Steven Stamkos for the 5-3 final.
“Listen, we had the momentum in this game clearly for the first 10-12 minutes, whatever it was,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said, “and we gave the momentum back with our self-inflicted errors, plain and simple. Turnovers, lack of execution, and we just gave them freebies. It’s tough to win if you’re going to continue to do that.”
Tampa dropped to 6-4-4.
Jonas Johansson made 24 saves in the loss.
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