Lightning winning streak comes to an end in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Blackhawks

The good news is that the Tampa Bay Lightning looked a lot more like the Lightning we are used to seeing. The bad news is that they weren’t able to pull out a win and their six-game winning streak came to an end in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. Anthony Cirelli, Alex Killorn, and Ryan McDonagh scored for the Bolts while Alex DeBrincat scored twice and Dominik Kubalik scored the game-tying goal six minutes into the third period. Phillip Kurashev scored the only goal in the shootout to give the ‘Hawks the extra point.

It was a battle of the backups in net as Curtis McElhinney started for the Lightning. He made 24-of-27 saves in his fourth start of the year. Malcolm Subban started for Chicago and was much stronger in net than he was against the Bolts on opening night. Subban stopped 39 shots in regulation and overtime while denying Victor Hedman, Brayden Point, and Steven Stamkos in the shootout.

Erik Cernak returned from his upper body injury to play 20:51. Unfortunately they were without Jan Rutta who was scratched prior to the game with a lower-body injury.

The Lightning controlled much of the play at 5v5 as they had 61.36% of the shot attempts and 73.33% of the high danger chances. While the result wasn’t what they had hoped for, the process was much better. They had a season-high 40 shots overall (8 from Alex Killorn alone!). It was a sharp contrast to their previous few games where they were outplayed but still managed to win.

The two teams meet one more time on Sunday as the Lightning’s six-game road trip continues.

Highlights:

First Period

Anthony Cirelli (Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat)

Alex Killorn (Victor Hedman, Ondrej Palat)

Alex DeBrincat (Adam Boqvist, Patrick Kane)

Second Period

Alex DeBrincat (Patrick Kane)

Third Period

Ryan McDonagh (Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson)

Dominik Kubalik (Duncan Keith, Adam Boqvist)