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Bishop, Lightning Steal Victory in Chicago

October 5, 2013, 11:32 PM ET [90 Comments]
Michael Stuart
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Ben Bishop and the Tampa Bay Lightning stole victory from the hands of defeat on Saturday night against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks outshot the Lightning, outplayed the Lightning, and looked every bit like a Stanley Cup champion team. As the final score shows, that didn’t amount to enough for them to grab two points.

After being outshot 25-6 through 40 minutes of play, the Lightning turned up the heat and battled back to tie the game in the third period. Without Ben Bishop’s early heroics, the team wouldn’t have been in a position to do that. Just as Tuukka Rask came up huge for the Bruins in the Lightning’s season opener, Bishop came up huge for the Lightning on Saturday. He is singlehandedly responsible for the Lightning’s win.

The Lightning were outshot 12-0 in the first frame, but the Blackhawks were unable to convert on numerous great opportunities. Defensively stingy, the Hawks stifled every single Lightning rush by closing ‘the gap’ and blocking lanes. The Lightning’s possession game looked dreadful, as the team’s Corsi number shows. For their part, the Blackhawks performed like a dominant group.

Patrick Kane opened the scoring just under one minute into the second frame when he got his stick on the puck in front of Bishop and chipped it past the lanky goaltender. The Hawks’ first goal against the Bolts was Bishop’s only real blemish on an otherwise stellar night. While the Hawks did manage to score a second goal midway through the middle frame, it came as a result of a weird bounce off the glass; Bishop had no chance to stop it.

Down 2-0 with two periods in the books, things looked very bleak for the Lightning. Simply put, the team didn’t seem to have much life. That was until Martin St. Louis backhanded the puck past Corey Crawford to cut the team’s deficit in half. Just as good captains do often, St. Louis lit a spark under his team. Steven Stamkos and Matt Carle were credited with assists on Marty’s first of the year.

Under two minutes later, with the Lightning on the power-play, Teddy Purcell fired home his first of the year from St. Louis and Stamkos. When the Lightning needed offense most, the big guns stepped up. After Ben Bishop held the team in the game for so long, the Lightning’s dynamic duo took over. While far from dominant in the third, the Lightning did prove that they can at least compete with the reigning champs.

Tied at two, the game moved into the overtime period. Neither the Bolts nor the Hawks was able to convert in the extra frame, and so a shootout was needed. After Ben Bishop stopped Jonathan Toews, Valtteri Filppula made a pretty move and beat Crawford to get the Lightning on the board. Bishop then proceeded to stop Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa to secure the Lightning victory.

If someone had come to you one week ago and said that the Lightning would be 1-1-0 after games against the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks, you probably would have been a very happy fan. Things on Saturday were far from pretty, but the Lightning got results. Good teams manufacture wins out of nasty situations; the Bolts did exactly that. Credit Ben Bishop for stepping up when his team looked asleep. Credit Martin St. Louis for being a good captain and doing what needed to be done. For whatever reason, the Lightning managed to turn an ugly (read: stunningly horrendous) performance, in which they were outshot 39-16, into two points in the standings.

And if you were wondering just how bad things were...



As always, thanks for reading.
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