NEWSLETTER
Wake me up when March ends.
The Chicago Blackhawks fall to the Tampa Bay Lightning, again, 4-2 in the sixth meeting between the teams this season. Chicago is now 1-4-1 against the defending Stanley Cup champions, with just two more matchups left on the schedule.
FINAL: Lightning 4, #Blackhawks 2
Shot attempts: 39-36 TB
Shots on goal: 23-21 TB
5-on-5 scoring chances: 25-17 TB
5-on-5 high danger chances: 8-8 pic.twitter.com/5eMBPUwO4C— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) March 19, 2021
The Blackhawks, who scored the game’s opening goal on the first powerplay opportunity of the night, are now 10-4-2 this season when scoring the game’s opening goal.
They have lost three-straight in regulation after scoring the first goal of the game.
Kubalik and Janmark connect on the power play to give Chicago a 1-0 lead in Tampa! @NBCSChicago | #CHIvsTBL pic.twitter.com/kRIt2dYaUR
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 18, 2021
It was also another instance of the Blackhawks blowing a lead.
After going up 1-0, the Lightning scored the next two goals in the period, softly, to take a 2-1 lead before the Blackhawks knotted the game back up late in the first period, also on the powerplay. Chicago had gone 0-for-8 over their previous two games on the man-advantage before scoring on both powerplays they had in the game’s opening frame. They finished the game 2-for-4 on the powerplay.
Dylan Strome scores in his first game back after missing the last 11 with a concussion. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/B8QA6TyFdo
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) March 18, 2021
Dylan Strome returned to the Blackhawks lineup tonight after missing the past 11 games with a concussion. Strome tallied his fifth goal of the season with the powerplay tally to tie the game 2-2. He returned to the lineup playing on the wing with Janmark and Ryan Carpenter. Strome has nine points in 20 games played this season for Chicago and scored his first goal since February 2nd tonight, ending an eight-game goal drought.
While the first two goals that starter Kevin Lankinen gave up were soft goals he would like the have back, the eventual game-winner was anything but soft.
Sus… pic.twitter.com/vnrdS5XZM8
— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) March 19, 2021
Ross Colton bulldozed his way to his second goal of the season, giving the Lightning the lead for good. Lankinen made 19 saves on 22 shots, seeing his record fall to 10-7-4 on the season, having lost four of his last five starts.
The Blackhawks will take on the Lightning on Saturday afternoon. If they can clean up a lot of the little details, they’ll maybe have a shot at getting at least a point from the Lightning in the final game of their current six-game road trip.
Final Thoughts
• Andrei Vasilveskiy wins his tenth-straight game and moves to 19-3-1 on the season. He has won all five of his starts against the Blackhawks this season after making 19 saves on 21 shots tonight. He is the only goalie in NHL history to have winning streaks of nine games or more in four consecutive seasons.
• Alex Killorn scored the Lightning’s first goal of the game in the first period. He has a five-game goal streak going against the Blackhawks this season with nine points over that span.
• The Blackhawks entered this game with five players on three-game point streaks. Dominik Kubalík and Duncan Keith are the only two of the five that continue their streaks to four games. Kubalík assisted on the game’s opening goal, he has a goal and three assists on his four-game streak. Keith assisted on the Strome powerplay goal, also giving him a goal and three assists on his four-game streak.
