Blackhawks at Lightning
Captain Steven Stamkos looks to build off a season-best, four-point performance when his Tampa Bay Lightning go after a seventh straight victory in the series against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night. Stamkos recorded a goal and three assists in Wednesday’s 7-3 rout of Florida and is averaging nearly a point per game after a slow start to the campaign.
“He was amazing,” Tampa Bay forward Yanni Gourde told reporters of Stamkos, who joined him and J.T. Miller on a new line Wednesday. “He was winning puck battles. He was so fast. He was shooting the puck. It was a great game for him and it was really fun to play with him.” The Lightning recorded a modern era record 33 shots in the second period of a 6-3 victory over the Blackhawks on Oct. 21 and Chicago last beat Tampa Bay 1-0 in overtime early in the 2015-16 season. The Blackhawks saw a four-game point streak (2-0-2) come to an end Wednesday despite registering 39 shots on net in a 4-2 setback at Washington to open a three-game trip. “We’re disappointed,” Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton told reporters after the loss. “We could have got some points today and we didn’t. But we’re good enough. We have a good enough team. We’ve just got to tighten up a little bit.”
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, NBCS Chicago
ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS (8-9-5): Right wing Patrick Kane has not scored in his last six games, but added four assists in that stretch to maintain his lead on the team with 25 points. Captain Jonathan Toews (19 points) is hot on his trail with two goals and four assists during a five-game point streak and fellow forward Brandon Saad has scored in three consecutive contests to push his season total to seven after coming up empty the first eight games. Chicago has struggled on special teams of late, going 3-for-24 on the power play over nine games and killing 6-of-10 attempts in the past five contests.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (15-6-1): Right wing Nikita Kucherov has wielded a hot stick of late to take over the team lead in points with 27 after recording two goals and seven assists during a four-game run. Kucherov skated on a line with second-leading scorer Brayden Point (team-best 14 goals, 26 points) and Tyler Johnson in Wednesday’s victory and notched his fourth power-play tally of the season. Defenseman Ryan McDonagh continued his All Star-worthy campaign with three points against Florida and owns 16 overall to go along with a club-best plus-12 rating while logging a team-most 23:06 per game.
OVERTIME
1. Kane has 21 points in 16 career games against the Lightning, but managed one assist and a minus-3 rating in the first meeting this season.
2. Tampa Bay G Louis Domingue boasts two 40-save victories in the last three contests and turned aside 33 shots to beat the Blackhawks last month.
3. Chicago D Duncan Keith, who has yet to score a goal this season, snapped a nine-game point drought with an assist Wednesday.