CHICAGO — Opening their three-game road trip Tuesday night against the league’s worst team, the Lightning had plenty of opportunities to pull away from the Blackhawks at the United Center, but found themselves going into the final period of regulation still deadlocked at 1.
Third period has been winning time for the Lightning, and Tampa Bay broke through with three goals for a 4-1 victory. The Lightning won for the ninth time in 12 games when tied after two periods.
In his first game back in Chicago after the deadline trade that sent him to the Lightning last season, Brandon Hagel set up Alex Killorn for a go-ahead goal at the 7:11 mark in the third, then scored on the power play with 9:46 remaining.
In a second period that included 28 shot attempts by the Lightning, Mikhail Sergachev’s shot from the point hit off the right post. Hagel then rifled a shot that hit off the crossbar in the top left corner, and minutes later Nikita Kucherov struck iron from the right circle.
But after peppering shots from all areas of the offensive zone in the second, the Lightning attacked from in close. Hagel took the puck off the near boards and found Killorn in front. Killorn pulled the puck back through traffic and flicked a shot past Chicago goaltender Alex Stalock while falling to the ice.
Brayden Point’s back-handed pass then found Hagel positioned along the back post, giving the Lightning a two-goal lead. Nick Paul scored a short-handed, empty-net goal with 66 seconds left.
Lightning goaltender Brian Elliott made 25 saves, winning for the eighth time in his past nine games.
Against a Chicago team that entered the night ranked last in the league in point percentage, goals scored and home wins, the Lightning struggled to flex their superiority.
Three first-period penalties kept the Lightning’s top scorers on the bench, and despite being outshot 12-6 going into the first intermission, they had to feel fortunate to be tied at 1.
They came out shooting in the second, determined to test Stalock. And they pounded three shots off the post in the first nine minutes of the period, applying pressure on the Blackhawks but going into the locker room with nothing to show for it.
Trailing 1-0 in the opening period, Pat Maroon made a direction in front, reaching out his stick with his right hand to poke Victor Hedman’s puck toward the front into a wide-open net after Stalock jumped out of the crease to make a play on the puck.
Hedman created the opportunity by preventing a Blackhawks clear attempt, notching his 492nd career assist, passing Vinny Lecavalier for third place on the Lightning’s all-time list.
The Blackhawks entered the night having lost 12 of their last 13 games and were the lowest-scoring team in the league, averaging just 2.19 goals a game, but they took an early lead.
Chicago made the Lightning pay for Ian Cole’s tripping penalty, as Elliott couldn’t intercept former Tampa Bay forward Taylor Raddysh’s pass to the front of the net with his right pad, giving defenseman Seth Jones an open net for an easy redirection.
Jones’ goal, scored 4:50 in, was the Blackhawks’ first power-play goal by a defenseman this season.
