As both teams came off games on Saturday night, the Blackhawks looked to take the momentum of their first regulation into Sunday’s night’s tilt against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Chicago was able to steal a win on Saturday evening on the back of Corey Crawford heroics, as the Blackhawks won 4-1 in Columbus. On Sunday, Chicago looked to rebound and take advantage of a tired Lightning team, who went to overtime with the Minnesota Wild the night before. Chicago’s lines were as follows:
Debrincat – Toews – Kahun
Schmaltz – Anisimov – Kane
Kunitz – Kampf – Saad
Fortin – Kruger – Martinsen
Keith – Jokiharju
Gustafsson – Seabrook
Davidson – Rutta
Ward
First Period
As the first period begun on Sunday night at the United Center, both teams came out visibly tired after having played road games the evening before. The early portion of the first period was sloppy, as both teams traded chances with nothing to show for it.
After about three minutes, Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov found himself open between two Blackhawks’ defenders as teams were changing. Kucherov skated in hard on net and finished with a backhand past Cam Ward to give Tampa Bay the early 1-0 lead.
Chances continued to be traded throughout the first period. Chicago seemed to have found their spark, as they visibly looked like the better team after Tampa Bay took the lead.
At the 11:40 mark in the first period, Blackhawks rookie forward Alexandre Fortin snuck in behind the defense where he was wide open at the opposing blue line. Jan Rutta found Fortin on a beautiful stretch pass and Fortin skated in on goaltender Louis Domingue. Fortin fired the puck five-hole to tie the game and, finally, give the rookie his first NHL goal.
Alexandre Fortin's first @NHL goal was a BEAUTY!#NHLFirsts #Blackhawks https://t.co/igDeINLTgZ
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 21, 2018
Chicago would head to the powerplay on the shift following Fortin’s first career goal, only to waste the opportunity. Neither team was able to generate much for the rest of the period. The teams went to the locker room tied 1-1 after one period. The Blackhawks held the shot advantage 17-12 after the first twenty minutes.
Second Period
The Blackhawks came out slow in the second period, while Tampa Bay quickly took over the pace of play.
At the 4:22 mark in the second period, forward Anthony Cirelli potted his second goal of the season to give Tampa Bay a lead which they would never relinquish. The puck looked to have been stopped by Cam Ward, but the referee never lost sight of it and the Lightning were able to jam the puck in over Ward’s right pad prior to any whistles.
Chicago took a slew of penalties in the middle period, giving Tampa Bay’s dangerous powerplay chances to capitalize. At the 12:07 mark in the second period, Yanni Gourde scored on the powerplay on a nice tic-tac-toe passing play to the visitors a two goal lead.
Not long after Gourde’s goal, the Lightning struck once again. As the puck laid in the blue paint, it couldn’t be controlled by the Blackhawks defense. After numerous attempts to clear the puck, Brayden Point tapped it into the net to extend Tampa Bay’s lead to 4-1 at the 14:01 mark.
There were virtually no for Chicago in the second period, other than Cam Ward fighting for his life, as they gave up a expansion-era record tying 33 shots to Tampa Bay, recording only 6 of their own.
The teams would enter the intermission with a 45-23 shot total after two, and a three goal lead for the visitors.
Third Period
Early on, neither team looked like they wanted to play the third period. The Blackhawks looked completely deflated, while Tampa Bay wanted to get out of Chicago with no injuries and their commanding win.
As play paced back and forth, Tampa Bay finally took advantage of a play at the 9:40 mark in the period. Defenseman Victor Hedman struck with a top shelf snipe on Cam Ward to give Tampa Bay a 5-1 lead. The game looked over at that point, and for a few minutes that seemed to be what Chicago thought too.
However, later in the period, at the 15:17 mark, a Jan Rutta dump into the offensive zone would catch the skate of the linesman, who jumped up on the boards to avoid the puck, and took a perfect bounce onto David Kampf’s stick. Kampf fired the puck past Louie Domingue, who was out of position from the crazy bounce, and make the score 5-2. The Blackhawks looked to have a little life left in them.
Not more than two minutes later, Chicago made their way to the powerplay and pulled Cam Ward to give themselves a two man advantage. Patrick Kane found Nick Schmaltz open on the left wing side only for him to be robbed by Domingue, or so we thought. After review, it was determined that Domingue caught the puck after it had fully crossed the goal line and the goal counted for the Blackhawks, giving Schmaltz his first tally of the season. Side note, It was also the Lightning’s first powerplay goal against this season.
#Schmaltzy pic.twitter.com/9AWaC8aqjq
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 22, 2018
The two late goals were too little, too late however, as Ryan Callahan scored an empty net goal at the 17:55 mark to put the game out of reach. Tampa Bay went on to win 6-3 in Chicago.
The Good:
- Saad: Brandon Saad looked like himself tonight playing on the third line with David Kampf and Chris Kunitz. He was creating chances down low, playing strong on the forecheck and on defense. This type of game has allowed Saad throughout his career, to be one of the better two way forwards in the league. If he can continue this play, look for #20 to start putting some pucks in the back of the net.
- Fortin’s first: Alexandre Fortin (whom we also found out is former NHL goaltender Jean-Sebastian Giguere’s nephew) scored his first NHL goal. He was all over the ice, creating big chances with his speed. Fortin’s speed and hard work are two traits that earned him a contract two seasons ago out of training camp. Now that he is fully healthy, he has proven himself valuable since prospect camp.
- Ward: Surprisingly, Cam Ward was fantastic in the outing against the Lightning. He faced 54 total shots, and early on, kept Blackhawks in the game. Sadly, too many shots and high quality chances wasted a solid outing from Ward on the tail end of a back to back.
The Not-So-Good:
- Powerplay: The powerplay continues to be terrible for Chicago. They currently sit at #29 in the NHL on the powerplay. Only Vegas and Carolina are worse on the man advantage. If the Blackhawks want any kind of sustained success this season, that powerplay number needs to hover around the middle third of the league.
- Physicality: This team continues to be bullied by just about every team they play. Stan Bowman wanted this team to be tougher to play against, however, they have not been able to match up to other good teams’ physicality. Martinsen and Kunitz are playing to provide that physicality, however both have been completely ineffective.
- Too many shots: Teams in the NHL rarely ever win when giving up 55 shots in a game. When the Blackhawks were dominant between 2010 and 2015, they were usually outshooting teams in the manner that Tampa Bay did tonight. That is a winning recipe when you are outshooting opponents by a large margin. If the Blackhawks are to contend this season, these shot numbers need to (obviously) decrease dramatically. Otherwise, we will see many more results like last night: really good goaltending overwhelmed by a barrage of shots (and high quality chances).
- Fun fact: Tampa Bay’s 33 shots on net in the second period were tied for the record of shots recorded in one period since the expansion era, which began in 1967.