Coach Jeff Blashill had a sense of déjà vu Friday night before his Chicago Blackhawks faced the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Blashill and Lightning coach Jon Cooper held their media availabilities at 4:30 p.m. They threw some playful jabs at each other, ones they likely had when Blashill was Cooper’s assistant for three years.
“For me personally, there are tons of familiarity, probably even for our team in a sense that a lot of the systems that they play, we have brought here,” Blashill said. “Our team’s going to see a mirror of themselves systematically to a large degree. Now it comes down to going out and executing and all those things, work, compete, all those things that matter in winning hockey games.”
The fans — 18,841 of them — filed into the United Center despite the subzero wind chill and weather warnings. It was the second half of a back-to-back for the Hawks after a shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes the night before in Raleigh, N.C.
Would the Hawks be able to steal another one from an Eastern Conference juggernaut?
Nope. The red-hot Lightning escaped with a 2-1 shootout victory to improve to 14-0-1 over their last 15 games.
But three points in two days against a pair of Stanley Cup contenders? Not bad for the young Hawks (21-22-8).
“We’re taking steps every day and we want to improve and want to get better, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” goaltender Arvid Söderblom said. “These two games have been steps in the right direction.”
The shootout went to Round 5 after the first four saw successful attempts the Hawks’ Frank Nazar and Louis Crevier and the Lightning’s Kucherov and Gage Goncalves.
Oliver Moore, who scored the shootout winner Thursday on his 21st birthday, wasn’t able to repeat the feat, and Dominic James ended it for the Lightning (32-13-4), who improved to 11-0-2 in their last 13 road games.
For the second straight night, the Hawks led a game they shouldn’t have been.
The Lightning possessed the puck for nearly the entire first period, but Ryan Greene’s seventh goal of the season at 17:42 gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead. The Hawks followed with a two-shot second period but were somehow still tied after they allowed a goal from right winger Nikita Kucherov at 18:42.
“We’re a tough team to handle,” Greene said. “We’re just trying to keep that going moving forward.”
The Hawks offense was anemic for the first two periods with only six shots on goal against a stingy Lightning defense.
“We just didn’t do a good enough job making the harder plays to get out of our end,” Blashill said. “I didn’t think we were giving up Grade A after Grade A, but certainly getting leaned on, territorial wise.”
The Hawks used a flurry of forechecks and blocked shots to frustrate the visitors, especially on their NHL-best penalty kill. It’s not something the coach strictly emphasizes, but it hasn’t hurt.
“It’s something we want to always do a good job with,” Blashill said. “Generally, even when we’re not maybe playing our best, we still are pretty long so we can contest a lot of shots.”
The Hawks found their rhythm in the third, putting up eight shots on goal and creating several more opportunities to break the tie.
“The first couple periods there, they probably took it to us a little more than we did to them,” Greene said. “I thought we had a good push there in the third and looking to build off that going into Sunday.”
Söderblom made 30 saves and played a big role in extending the game. It was an elite performance, one he wants to build off of.
“It was a busy night, it was fun to play, to see a lot of shots,” Söderblom said. “Sucks that we didn’t get both points, but I think we played our best in the third and made a push, but obviously not enough.”
André Burakovsky had a prime opportunity to win it in overtime. But with an empty net behind a sprawled-out Andrei Vasilevskiy (17 saves), the Hawks forward whiffed on his attempt.
- Jason Dickinson returned to the lineup after missing Thursday’s game with an illness. He logged 15:20 of ice time with a shot on goal.