Slaggert Scores In Season Debut; Blackhawks Beat Lightning 4-1

The Chicago Blackhawks allowed the Tampa Bay Lightning to tie it with the goalie pulled and then win it in overtime last week at United Center.

This time around, they wanted to make things right against the Lightning. Tuesday night's tilt took place in Tampa at Amalie Arena. When you play a team like them in their building, you need to be almost perfect against their top-six forward group and stay out of the box.

Early in the game, the Hawks did none of that. At 3:34 of the opening frame, with both teams at full strength, Brayden Point buried one off a beautiful feed from Nikita Kucherov. That made it feel like it was going to be a long night.

The Hawks started to take some penalties early too but Tampa was never able to capitalize. That 1-0 lead would make its way to the second period. Middle frames have been a sore spot for the Blackhawks this year but they reversed that in this one.

At 10:19 of the second, Connor Bedard scored a beauty. He put a perfectly placed shot from a tough angle into the corner of the net over Jonas Johansson’s shoulder past his ear. Only a puck would be able to fit there.

From that point on, the Hawks took over. Landon Slaggert, in his first game called up to the NHL this season, scored. That’s a great way to make an impression which should allow him to play in their next game.

There was just under two minutes left in the period when Slaggert scored and they took that 2-1 lead into the third. There, Ryan Donato scored one off a Seth Jones shot that bounced right to him off the end board. Once Teuvo Teravainen made it 4-1 with an empty netter, the game was sealed.

This was a great game for the Hawks. They didn’t thoroughly dominate the Lightning but they did enough to stay in the game and eventually win it by multiple goals.

They couldn’t have done it without Arvid Soderblom who was fantastic in net. He made 34 saves on 35 shots to earn the win. When the Hawks were up 2-1, he came up especially large to keep his team in front. They rewarded him this time.

The hard road trip will continue for the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday. Taylor Hall and the Carolina Hurricanes will be in Raleigh waiting to host them.

That’s another game against an elite Eastern Conference team but despite their struggles this season, Chicago has shown the ability to skate with these great teams. This win in Tampa is the latest example.

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