The Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t want to fall behind 0-2 in the Stanley Cup Final. They needed a win on Saturday night against the Chicago Blackhawks, and they needed it in a big way. After some strange occurrences and back-and-forth action, they managed to get the job done. The final result was a 4-3 victory for the home team.
One of the big storylines heading into this series was the apparent disparity between Chicago’s forward depth and Tampa’s. The Blackhawks have been able to generate scoring from all corners of their roster, while the Bolts have struggled to do so. That ability has allowed Chicago to win games, as they did in Game One, even when Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews aren’t firing on all cylinders. On the other side of things, the Lightning’s inability to generate goals from the bottom-six units has undoubtedly made things more challenging for the club to this point in the postseason.
So, with all that in mind, it was great to see Cedric Paquette score his second of the playoffs 12:56 into the first period. Assisted by Ryan Callahan and Victor Hedman, Paquette fired a shot from the slot that beat Corey Crawford to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead. If Tampa can get scoring from players like Paquette on a more regular basis, the task at hand will be a lot more manageable.
Unlike on June 3rd, when it took the Blackhawks until the third period to respond to Tampa’s one-goal lead, Chicago got on the board early in the second period to tie the game. With Andrej Sustr caught watching, Andrew Shaw battled in the crease to tap the puck past Ben Bishop and into the gaping cage. Things went from bad to worse just over two minutes later, as Teuvo Teravainen scored his second goal of the series, a power play marker, to put the Blackhawks up 2-1.
At that point, it was hard to gauge how Tampa would respond. Would Chicago’s winning experience scare them off? Would they cower in fear? No, and no. Instead, the Lightning answered in style.
It started with Nikita Kucherov’s 10th goal of the playoffs, assisted by Jason Garrison and Braydon Coburn, and continued with Tyler Johnson’s 13th of the postseason. Those goals put the Lightning up 3-2 through two periods, and gave the raucous crowd at Amalie Arena a lot to cheer about.
Up by one with 20 minutes left on the clock, the Bolts must have been drawing parallels between the second and first games. The question on the mind of every spectator was how the Lightning would play out the final period this time around. Would they try to nurse a one-goal lead to the finish line, or would they keep playing? The following possession chart should help to answer that question:
Yes, the Blackhawks made a noticeable push. No, the Lightning weren’t able to keep pushing the pace. Yes, they should be a lot more assertive than they were. But they didn’t roll over and completely die like they did in Game One. They didn't allow the Hawks to completely dictate the outcome. That has to be considered a positive.
Even so, Chicago was able to tie the game. With Marian Hossa subtly interfering with Ben Bishop’s pad, Brent Seabrook wired a shot past Bishop for the score. Most respected hockey commentators agreed that the goal shouldn’t have counted, but goaltender interference is not reviewable. At the time, it was hard not to be angry. Thankfully, and perhaps rightfully, the Lightning ended up winning the hockey game.
That winning goal came in the form of a Jason Garrison bomb on the power play. Assisted by Hedman and Callahan, the veteran defender rifled the puck past Crawford to give Tampa the lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Amidst all the scoring, and just prior to the Garrison goal, Lightning goalie Ben Bishop left the game with an apparent issue. There was tons of speculation at the time that he was dealing with a “number two” sort of problem, just like Roberto Luongo did during the playoffs a few years ago. I wouldn't put too much value in that theory; it sure looks and feels like an injury. Regardless, Andrei Vasilevskiy was forced into the game, which added yet another wrinkle to an already tense game.
Bishop returned to the game shortly after Garrison scored, but was again forced to leave. Jon Cooper refused to comment on the goaltending after the game, which leads credence to the theory that this wasn’t a simple bathroom issue. Then there’s this:
The goaltender’s status will be something to monitor as the series moves back to Chicago. The good news for Tampa Bay is that, unlike last year when they had to turn to Anders Lindback, they have a very talented Vasilevskiy waiting in the wings. The 20-year-old netminder’s resume is strong, and includes a great run during last year’s KHL playoffs.
Another positive for the Lightning, this one unrelated to goaltending, is the way they were able to get past Chicago’s supposedly impenetrable defense. Niklas Hjalmarsson rocked a 39% Corsi and five-on-five, and Duncan Keith owned a 45% rating per HockeyStats.ca. Meanwhile, every single one of Tampa’s top-six forwards was at or above the 50% mark. That bodes very well for the Bolts as they move to Chicago looking to build on this victory.
On the flipside of things, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were back to being their possession-driving selves. Like Tampa’s Triplets, they both hovered around 60% in the five-on-five Corsi column. Granted, they were outchanced at five-on-five by a Tampa third line that has really struggled in the offense department all postseason long. This despite the fact that they started far more shifts in the offensive zone than the defensive zone. If Toews and Kane are being outchanced by their matchup, it's probably not a good thing for the Blackhawks. There's a lot to like about what the Lightning have been able to do to Chicago's dynamic duo through so far in this series, even if the two had their possession numbers rebounded in the second game.
But, as the final score shows, Toews and Kane weren’t able to use those possession numbers to change the outcome of the game for their team. Tampa won. Tampa tied the series up at one win each. It would be nearly impossible to overstate the importance of this win. Instead of being down 0-2 in the series, the Lightning can now head to Chicago knowing that they can compete with and beat one of the best teams in hockey. There won’t be a sweep. This is a series.
Oh, and Cooper said Jonathan Drouin was great.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter. 
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