Tampa, FL (AP) – Ross Colton scored two goals and added a assist, Stephen Stemkas and Braden Point scored a goal and a pass, and Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Friday night.
Andrei Vasilevsky made 21 saves and improved against the Blackhawks – 13-0-0 in the regular season. He won 1-1 during the 2015 Stanley Cup final, in which Chicago defeated Lightning in six games.
Brendan Hagel added an empty net in his first game against his former team.
John Cooper of Tampa Bay coached his 700th game in the NHL, becoming the 49th to do so. Him 426-215-59.
“The guys gave me the puck, so it was cool,” Cooper said. “It will go somewhere good. Seven hundred – 10 years ago I wasn’t even sure I would ever train, let alone 700. We had a pretty special group over the years. Here is the family. ”
Calvin de Haan and Alex DeBrinkat scored on goals, and Kevin Lankinen hit 38 shots for the Blackhawks, who lost 4-0 in Florida on Thursday night and dropped seven of nine (2-5-2).
“They’re a qualified team,” de Haan said of two-time Stanley Cup lightning champion. “They’re a veteran group. They’ve been around for a long time. They always seem to know where everyone is on the ice. It’s a good test for a young group like ours to try to compete with these teams. It’s hard, they’re contenders.” .
Undermining the two-goal lead, Lightning took a 4-2 lead after a pair of Coltan goals in the second. After a rebound at 6:12 Colton scored with a score of 7:45 to get out of the fold from the pass between the legs from the hands of Nicholas Paul.
“It was cute,” Cooper said.
Pavel and Nikita Kucherov scored two assists each.
Stamkas opened the scoring with the 11th throw of Tampa Bay with a score of 6:11 in the game.
The point made the score 2-0 due to closing at 10:12 first.
The Blackhawks played back later in the first match and tied the score at 2 on goals from de Haan and DeBrynkat, who got their 39th this season.
De Haan scored his third goal of the season and second in three games when his rebound from the blue line dodged Vasilevsky with a score of 1:59 after Point’s goal.
DeBrinkat tied the game during the game with a score of 2:39 in the first, a period when Chicago was beaten back by a score of 19-9.
BACK TO THE CITY
The first period was a video honoring Tyler Johnson, who played in Tampa for the first time since the exchange in Chicago in the offseason. A member of the Stanley Cup 2020 and 2021 teams, Johnson circled in front of the bench to greet fans.
“It’s pretty cool,” Johnson said. “Obviously, Tampa will always have a special place in my heart.”
LIKUMY
Stamkas became the 56th NHL player to score 470 goals. He has four goals and eight points in a series of five games. … Tampa Bay is 9-0-1 in the last 10 games against Chicago. … Curls and Pierre-Edouard Bellmar were the only Tampa Bay skaters who didn’t have a shot on goal.
NEXT
Blackhawks: Arizona hosts Sunday night.
Lightning: Former Tampa Bay star and 2004 Stanley Cup champion Martin St-Louis will play for the first time in Tampa on Saturday night as interim coach of the Montreal Canadiens.
“Tomorrow I’ll face him and find out what’s going on with him,” Cooper said. “He steered that team in the right direction.”
