TAMPA — The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 at Amalie Arena on Thursday to extend their winning streak to seven and end Chicago’s at 12.
Anton Stralman and Nikita Kucherov each scored a goal, Victor Hedman had two assists, and Ben Bishop made 17 saves for Tampa Bay (26-17-4).
“You [beat] the defending champs, and they won 12 straight and they are red hot,” Hedman said. “But other than that, it was Game 47.”
Artem Anisimov scored for the Blackhawks (32-14-4), who lost for the first time since Dec. 27 to end the longest win streak in their history.
“Tonight, they were definitely the better team,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “[We] didn’t generate much, didn’t get much traffic or pucks to the net, didn’t get the offensive-zone time we liked. We got a few shifts, but they were few and far between.”
It was the first time the Blackhawks and Lightning played in Tampa since Game 5 of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. Chicago won that game 2-1 and then the Cup in Game 6 in Chicago.
“It was fun to be in the building,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “But I would trade what happened [Thursday] for what they did to us last [season].”
Kucherov scored the game-winning goal on a Lightning power play with 3:31 left in the second period. He skated to the right circle and surveyed the ice before taking a wrist shot that beat Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford high on the glove side for his 20th of the season.
“This might have been our best game all season. We played for 60 minutes, and we got rewarded for it,” Stralman said. “This is the way we want to play, honestly. This is how we can play, and it hasn’t always been there. But there are still a lot of games left, and, if we play like this, I think we will be fine.”
Tampa Bay closed out the game with a strong defensive effort. The line of J.T. Brown, Valtteri Filppula and Ryan Callahanlimited Chicago’s top line of Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Andrew Shaw to two shots.
“It’s quite a challenge to go against the other team’s top line; it’s exciting to be in that role,” Callahan said. “That’s how we look at it. We know if we do our job, we’ve got a great chance to win that hockey game. We are embracing it.”
Tampa Bay outshot Chicago 33-18.
“They did a heck of a job to contain them,” Hedman said of the Brown-Filppula-Callahan line. “For us to see those guys, and everyone, sacrificing themselves, playing hard, not turning puck over … We’re doing well as of late, and that’s very exciting to us.”
The Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead 43 seconds into the game on Anisimov’s 17th goal. Patrick Kane beat Stralman and passed to an open Anisimov, who put a backhand shot past Lightning goalie Ben Bishop.
“They checked pretty well the whole game,” Anisimov said. “You go to the net hard and take your opportunity. If you have a chance to shoot, you need to shoot. We made too many plays in the middle of the ice. They took away the puck and [went] the other way.”
Stralman tied the game 1-1 at 7:14 of the first period when he redirected a slap shot from Hedman, beating Crawford through the five-hole.
“They just have so much skill on their team,” Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson said. “They pretty much have exactly the same lineup as last year, so just looking at that, they should be a good team. I think they’ll end up in the top spot in the Eastern Conference.”
Crawford had 31 saves in his first loss in 10 starts.
“It seems like they had pretty good sticks and they closed the gap in their zone pretty fast,” Crawford said. “We worked hard, but some things didn’t go for us.”
The Blackhawks will visit the Florida Panthers, who had a 12-game win streak of their own Dec. 15-Jan. 10, on Friday.
The Lightning will play the Panthers on Saturday and go for an eighth straight victory, which would tie their record for longest winning streak.
Source: Blackhawks’ win streak ends in loss to Lightning by Corey Long