Lightning Beat Blackhawks 4-3, Tie Series

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Mary Chastain

The Tampa Bay Lightning evened the Stanley Cup Finals at a game apiece in a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday night.

Lightning did not repeat their same mistakes from Game 1, which allowed them to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks and tie the Stanley Cup Final at 1-1.

Both teams played fast and furious in the first period. Thankfully for both the goalies remained strong making save after save. The players never stopped! Constant on the go action with fast shots heavy rebounds. Brilliant hockey.

This save by goalie Ben Bishop is remarkable.

Something finally gave. Cedric Paquette scored at 12:56 to give the Bolts a 1-0 lead. The Lightning, at the time of the goal, were 9-1 when scoring first.

Ah, but the Blackhawks answered right back in the second period. Andrew Shaw scored only three minutes into the period to the shock of Lightning fans.

Tuevo Teravainen tacked on another one on the power play two minutes later. Amelie Arena lost all air as spectators sat in silence, completely stunned by the two quick goals.

Before anyone could catch a breath the Triplet line ransacked the Chicago zone to tie the game. Nikita Kucherov deflected a shot from Jason Garrison to tie the game 2-2.

The line attacked again when Tyler Johnson scored his thirteenth goal of the playoffs to put the Lightning ahead 3-2.

During the broadcast, NBC played the Chinese broadcast of the Johnson goal.

The third period started shaky. Brent Seabrook scored three minutes in, but controversy followed.

After the puck went in, Bishop immediately skated towards the referees to complain about interference. To the naked eye it does not appear to occur, but slow motion shows slight interference by Marian Hossa’s stick.

The Lightning could not challenge the play and the goal stood. The Blackhawks faced a similar situation on May 27 against the Anaheim Ducks. There was no penalty and the goal stood then as well.

Tampa Bay managed two shots, both effective, in the third period. Jason Garrison scored a power play goal at 8:49 to put the Lightning up 4-3. The tweet says Killorn, but it was Garrison’s goal.

Andrej Sustr received a delay of game penalty at 13:08, but the Lightning successfully killed it. Chicago pulled Corey Crawford with two minutes, but could not take advantage of the extra skater. The Lightning did not give up.

But the real question is what happened to Ben Bishop? He left the game and rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy took the reins for 90 seconds before Bishop returned. But then with only 7:41 left in the game, Bishop left again and did not return.

Coach Jon Cooper did not say anything after the game and no one else offered details.

Game 3 is Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on NBCSN.

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