CHICAGO – With just over three minutes left in regulation Cedric Paquette scored off a feed from the corner from Victor Hedman to propel the Tampa Bay Lightning to heartbreaking, 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup 
Final Monday night.
The goal completed a rally of sorts for the Lightning who trailed in the third after Chicago took a 2-1 lead early in the period on a goal from Brandon Saad.
Ryan Callahan scored in the first to give Tampa Bay an early 1-0 lead before Brad Richards launched a shot from the blueline that found its way to the back of the net.
Ben Bishop stopped 36 shots on the night including half of those in the first period.
Chicago’s big names continued to struggle in Game 3 with Marian Hossa, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp remaining off the score sheet.
“I liked their first period. We had two empty nets and didn’t capitalize on either one. We still had 1-1,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said of his stars. Scored a big power play goal, got some excitement. The crowd was there. I thought we had a good first, they had a good second. Third was even. Tough loss.”
Despite being hobbled by an undisclosed “injury” Bishop was solid in net even though he struggled regaining his footing during the game.
“Well, I talked to him. We’re not going to put anybody in a game that is going to be in harm’s way of hurting himself,” Lighting coach Jon Cooper said after the game when asked about his decision to leave Bishop in the game. “We talked long and hard if he could play tonight. There wasn’t a doubt in his eyes.
“You can read when guys are sitting there saying, Coach, I’ll go for you. Or you can say, give me the net. That kid said, give me the net. I knew we were going to be okay. As for him getting up slowly, that’s happened to him before. But, as I said, if he was going to be in harm’s way, we would have pulled him out. But he was good.”
Bishop said after the game he felt good and did feel better after the first period when he stopped 18 shots from the Blackhawks.
Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov (86) and Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews (19) fight for the puck. (Patrick Gorski/PHN)
“I felt good. The first period, probably a few too many rebounds there. As the game went on, the guys did a great job of clearing those out,” Bishop said. “As the game went on, I felt better, more comfortable. Some big blocked shots there at the end. Just a good team win all around. Obviously probably wasn’t our best first, but I thought we got better as the game went on.”
For Chicago, two games had the club concerned for the absence of their top scorers in Toews and Kane. Now the drought is at three games and the way the Lightning are playing defense and closing gaps as the Blackhawks attempt to rush up ice there is real worry among the team for the series as Game 4 looms as a real test of whether the Blackhawks will respond.
Photos by Patrick.Gorski@prohockeynews.com
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