STANLEy CUP fINALS, GAME 2 PREVIEW: CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS AT TAMPA BAy LIGHTNING
After winning a franchise-best 32 home games during the regular season, the Tampa Bay Lightning let a third-period lead slip away in the opener of the Stanley Cup final to fall for the sixth time in 11 playoff contests at Amalie Arena. Undaunted, the Lightning look to even their series with the visiting Chicago Blackhawks when the clubs play Game 2 tonight.
Tampa Bay seemed content to let Alex Killorn’s nifty deflection stand up as the lone goal in Game 1, as the team failed to muster a shot for more than 13 minutes at one point and routinely was on the defensive in the eventual 2-1 loss on Wednesday. “You can respect them; you can’t fear them,” Lightning veteran Brenden Morrow said. “It looked like in the third we were holding on and the fear of maybe what would be coming and what might happen.”
What did happen was rookie Teuvo Teravainen scored through a screen with 6½ minutes to play before setting up fellow third-liner Antoine Vermette’s tally 1:58 later as Chicago seized home-ice advantage. ■ TV: 4:15 p.m., NBC (3) ■ ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS: Defenseman Duncan Keith set up Teravainen’s goal to extend his assist/point streak to five games, during which he has set up eight tallies. The two-time Norris Trophy winner has a careerhigh 17 assists and 19 points in the playoffs, with the former serving as the most by a blue-liner in a playoff year since New York Rangers stud Brian Leetch (23, 1994) and the latter as the most by a defenseman since Edmonton’s Chris Pronger (21, 2006).
Keith, who is logging a massive 31:28 of average ice time in the playoffs, sat out Friday’s practice but is in no danger of missing Game 2.
■ ABOUT THE LIGHTNING: The vaunted “Triplets” line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov was held in check in the series opener, but coach Jon Cooper isn’t ready to push the panic button. “They’ve proven time and time again, they may be kept off the scoresheet a game here, a game there, but you’re not going to keep them off for long,” Cooper said of the line that recorded 28 goals and 55 points in the first three rounds of the playoffs. In the Stanley Cup final opener, however, the trio combined for just two shots.
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1. After combining for four goals in the last two games of the Western Conference final, the line consisting of Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, RW Patrick Kane and LW Brandon Saad mustered six shots and was held without a point in Game 1.
2. Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman brushed off three successive questions on the alleged biting incident involving Chicago’s Andrew Shaw in the series opener. Shaw’s response to the situation on Friday: “It’s hockey.”
3. Six of the past eight meetings between the teams have been decided by one goal, dating to March 9, 2011. The Lightning are 6-1-1, and the Blackhawks are 2-2-4 in that stretch.
■ PREDICTION: Lightning 4, Blackhawks 2
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