In Tampa, the Lightning scored three times in the middle frame on Saturday, and defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-1.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves ion winning his 11th straight start.
Brayden Point opened the scoring in the game with a first period strike.
Steven Stamkos scored the third goal of the second period outburst.
“It was one of those games where, especially in the second period, we relied on [Vasilevskiy] a little too much,” Stamkos said. “There are going to be games like this throughout the course of a season, but you just want to try to minimize them.
“We know we have the best goalie in the world, he showed it again tonight. You don’t want to rely on that too often.”
Chicago has lost four in a row, and six of seven.
“I think we needed more points than we got, and it was a long road trip, but I think overall we played pretty decent,” Chicago’s Adam Boqvist said. “Against these good teams, you have to find a way to win every battle, forecheck hard and put pucks in the net. That’s how you’re going to win games.”
Alex DeBrincat scored in the third period after all the damage was done.
“They’re a team that punishes you when you make mistakes,” Chicago head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We made a few and they scored. They made us suffer, and I thought we created more than enough, especially in the second period. We had a long stretch where we were putting pressure on, but then we’re down 1-0. Then they get the 4-on-4 goal, we kind of have a long, hard push, and the third one was tough.”
Anthony Cirelli pushed the Tampa lead to 2-0 in the second period.
“First off, [Hedman] and [Mikhail Sergachev] made great plays,” Cirelli said. “I tried to make a move and I think it bounced off of his glove.”
Yanni Gourde also scored for the Bolts.
“They had about 10 or 11 shots in a row and we hadn’t had a shot in 8-10 minutes. I don’t know for sure, but it felt that long anyway,” T
ampa head coach Jon Cooper said. “Then Yanni comes off the bench, we get a rush out of it, and he makes a great individual effort to score, and that probably burst their bubble a little bit.”
Malcolm Subban made 25 saves
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