Victor Hedman notched the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period as the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning broke a two-game goalless drought by beating the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 Thursday night.
On the decisive play, Erik Cernak’s long shot went wide, hit the end boards and bounced back out front. Hedman popped in his fourth tally at 11:53 to break a 2-all tie.
Former Blackhawk Brandon Hagel tallied into an empty net with 49 seconds left for the final margin.
Brayden Point had a goal and two assists and Hedman added a helper for a two-point night. Mikhail Sergachev recorded a goal and an assist as Tampa Bay broke a three-game skid.
Lukas Reichel and Corey Perry scored goals for Chicago, which took its third loss in four games.
The goaltending matchup was a repeat of Nov. 9 — Tampa Bay’s Jonas Johansson against Chicago’s Petr Mrazek — when the Blackhawks left Tampa with a 5-3 victory.
This time, Johansson made 13 saves for the win, while Mrazek allowed three goals on 29 shots.
After being held scoreless in the final 2:10 against Chicago on Nov. 9 and getting shut out consecutively in ensuing games against the Carolina Hurricanes and the St. Louis Blues, the Lightning were blanked again in the first period on Thursday.
Tampa Bay had a chance with 7:30 left in the first on Anthony Cirelli’s short-handed breakaway that Mrazek stuffed.
Just 30 seconds later on the same power play, the Blackhawks found the net for only the sixth time on the man advantage this season. Philipp Kurashev sent a hard shot into the slot, intentionally wide for a deflection, and Reichel redirected the puck by Johansson for his first goal.
Following the second penalty against Chicago’s Wyatt Kaiser, a delay-of-game infraction, Point tied the game at 4:40 of the second period by chipping in his seventh goal on a shot from Hedman.
Chicago challenged for offside on the play, but the marker was upheld — snapping Tampa Bay’s scoreless streak of almost 147 minutes.
Nine minutes into the middle period, Sergachev rifled home his first goal off assists by Point and Steven Stamkos to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
In the third, a turnover by Kucherov in the neutral zone led to an odd-man rush and a tie. Perry, who played the previous two seasons for the Lightning, finished off his fourth goal by tapping in a slick pass from Jason Dickinson at 2:09.
–Field Level Media
