Ilya Mikheyev made sure the Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t leave any opening for an upset Thursday night.
Mikheyev scored twice against his former team, Ryan McDonagh added his second straight goal, and the Lightning rolled past the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 behind a 24-save night from Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was celebrating his 600th career start. Tampa Bay scored twice in the opening period and twice more in the third, and Chicago never found a way to turn its better stretches into enough damage.
The win kept the Lightning perfect at home at 8-0 and pushed Vasilevskiy’s record against Chicago to 15-1.
Tampa Bay set the tone early by controlling the puck and keeping Chicago from getting comfortable. It took until 11:33 for the Blackhawks to even register their first shot attempt on Vasilevskiy, and by then the Lightning were already ahead.
On their first power play chance, Victor Hedman cashed in after a slick sequence through the neutral zone. Anthony Cirelli delivered the diagonal pass, Hedman kept moving into the slot, and Cirelli found him again for a wrist shot that beat Soderblom.
Chicago did show more life as the period went on, winning some puck battles and throwing 13 hits while chasing the play. Cole Smith’s hit on J.J. Moser in the Lightning zone led to a turnover, and Smith drove the net, but Vasilevskiy stopped him.
The Lightning answered with a goal from one of Chicago’s former players. Erik Cernak pushed the puck to Mikheyev on the entry, then drove the net to open space. Mikheyev used that room to cut in and fire a shot around Sam Rinzel that slipped through Soderblom’s five hole.
The Blackhawks had one of their better chances shortly after that when Ryan Donato picked off a Hedman give-and-go in the neutral zone and sent Frank Nazar in on a rush, but Vasilevskiy flashed the glove to keep it 2-0.
The middle period turned into a slog. Chicago did a better job clogging the neutral zone and slowing the game down, and the Lightning couldn’t generate much sustained pressure. There were 30 face-offs in the period, with Tampa Bay winning 20, but the stop-start pace kept the offense from opening up.
The lone real spark came when Jeff Viel fought 29-year-old “rookie” Dillon Boucher. Viel lost the scrap on points, but he landed a right hand that cut Boucher above the right eye.
Chicago nearly got on the board late in the period when Frank Nazar tipped a deflected puck past Vasilevskiy, but the goal was wiped out after the officials ruled the puck had been played with a high stick.
Even with the game bogged down, the Lightning still controlled the better chances. Chicago finished the second period with 19 shot attempts to Tampa Bay’s 16, but the home team had the edge in quality looks, and Vasilevskiy stayed sharp with a glove save on Conor Bedard and another stop on Andrew Mangiapane, who ended up tangled in the net.
Tampa Bay had been struggling to close games out lately, but this one never got away from them. Chicago’s strongest stretch came in the third, when it generated 12 scoring chances and 11 shots on net, yet most of the looks came from the outside and didn’t lead to much second-chance chaos.
The Lightning put it away anyway. McDonagh blasted a slapshot past Soderblom, and then Mikheyev struck again about two minutes later to make it 4-0. Chicago finally avoided the shutout when Roman Kantserov tipped in his eighth goal of the season with 48 seconds left.
In Other News...
Kucherov Just Turned Tampa Bays Biggest Contract Fight Into Something Bigger
Nikita Kucherov has pushed Tampa Bay into a familiar but uncomfortable place, with a contract standoff now spilling into a trade request. The Lightning stars situation is not framed around money as much as it is about how the relationship has functioned behind the scenes, and that makes it feel bigger than a simple negotiation over dollars and years.
For Tampa Bay, the immediate message from both the general manager and coach has been clear: there is no intention to move him. Still, the gap between what Kucherov is seeking and what the Lightning have put on the table has turned this into one of the teams defining storylines, with most around the league expecting him to stay for now before the long-term question comes back into focus later. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Just Put Vasilevskiys Long-Term Future Under A Brighter Spotlight
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Andrei Vasilevskiys camp has made clear he is happy in Tampa Bay, even as his agent noted negotiations can always alter the picture. The Lightning still have one of the leagues premier goalies in place, but with a strong free-agent market ahead, the club may need to navigate another high-stakes conversation if it wants to keep its core intact for the long haul. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Suddenly Face A Kucherov Exit Scenario Fans Never Expected
Nikita Kucherovs future has become one of those rare Lightning storylines that would have sounded far-fetched not long ago. NHL analyst James Mirtle raised the possibility of the Toronto Maple Leafs chasing the Tampa Bay star if he reaches free agency, a scenario that would instantly reshape the conversation around one of the leagues most important players and one of the Lightnings most recognizable faces.
The idea is still more theory than plan, but it underscores how complicated this situation has become. Mirtle pointed out that Toronto could at least explore the fit, even if the financial hurdles and roster limits would make a move difficult to pull off. For Tampa Bay, the bigger issue is simply that a player central to everything the franchise has built is now at the center of a very real exit discussion. [Read more 🡒]