Lightning Show Remarkable Resolve to Pull Off Wild Game 2 Win over Blackhawks

TAMPA, Fla. — It was as if someone printed a copy of the script of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final for use in Game 2 only to spill water on the document, causing it to be vaguely familiar to the original yet indecipherable and strange during the final two acts. 

What lay in those smudged areas, those seemingly improvised scenes leaking into the margins, is the reason the Tampa Bay Lightning emerged with a 4-3 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night that evened the best-of-seven series at 1-1.

It was three days ago, although it seems like Game 1 was played at some point in early 2012, that the Lightning scored first before two rapid-fire Blackhawks goals sunk them late in the third period. The sequel clung to the original formula, but it was Cedric Paquette who opened the scoring, only to see Andrew Shaw (plot twist) tie it and Teuvo Teravainen snatch away the lead. 

After that, this game turned into an art project that failed to reflect any known form of reality.

There was another jaw-dropping deflection goal that mirrored the one from Alex Killorn in Game 1, this one from Nikita Kucherov that tied the game at two. Then Tyler Johnson put the Lightning ahead again with a goal against Corey Crawford that was so bad that the odor from it may have sickened Ben Bishop when the teams switched sides for the final period.

Bishop left the game midway through the third period, perhaps with a lower-body injury, perhaps with some intestinal trauma, not long after allowing Brent Seabrook to tie the game. Whatever was plaguing Bishop, it thrust rookie backup Andrei Vasilevskiy into the net in a 3-3 game with 12:43 remaining.

Now the truly unbelievable part, the part seemingly a work of fiction: Defenseman Jason Garrison scored 32 seconds later on a power play to give the Lightning a 4-3 lead and put Vasilevskiy in position to earn a win despite not making a save, because Bishop rejoined the play after the goal. 

The brief goaltender swap wasn’t what made that particular sequence a flight of lunacy—it was that Garrison’s goal marked the first time since Game 2 of the second round that the Lightning received two goals in a game from someone outside of their top-six forwards.

No one could have foreseen something that wacky.

Then Bishop left the game for good, leaving Vasilevskiy to close his first career playoff win by making five saves against the pressing Blackhawks, which certainly exceeds the whole depth-scoring storyline.

Despite the rotation of goaltenders, the Lightning were never rattled, which was another deviation from the pattern of their Game 1 loss.

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“To be honest, there weren’t many guys that had much to say; we just went with the flow,” said Steven Stamkos, who was held without a point in 18:46. “We have confidence in Vasy. He’s come in in some relief appearances so he’s gained some confidence in the playoffs, made some big saves.” 

“No one really knew what was going on,” Stamkos added. “We were kind of listening to the announcements for who was in net for our team a couple of times. But depth has been a part for our success all season and it showed in the net tonight, as well.” 

During the season, sure, but the depth was sorely lacking for most of three rounds for the Lightning. They had been winning the same way in the East portion of the postseason; get goals from the top two lines and roll, or get goals from one of those two lines and have Bishop deliver a shutout or one-goal performance. 

That has to go out the window against the Blackhawks, the favorites in this series and by far the toughest competition for the Lightning in the postseason. Coach Jon Cooper knew it, which was why he inserted Jonathan Drouin into the lineup for Game 2 after the 20-year-old hadn’t played in a month.

Drouin played with purpose in the first period but was mostly written out of the story over the final two periods. While Drouin didn’t get on the scoresheet, Garrison and Paquette notching just their second goals of the playoffs was exactly what the Lightning needed. 

“I was thrilled when he scored tonight,” Cooper said of Paquette, who shut down Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews for a second straight game. “You could just tell how excited he was. It was just a weight off his shoulders that we were going to get some secondary scoring from some of these guys, then help out on the defensive end. It's phenomenal what he did.”

When Garrison scored to give the Lightning a one-goal lead, there was 11:11 remaining in the third period. It was during this time in Game 1 when the Lightning began showing signs of unraveling, playing it safe instead of staying on the attack.

Brenden Morrow said after Game 1 that there is a fine line between respect and fear, and there was more than a few moments in the third period when the Lightning were playing like a team that was afraid of making a mistake.

That was the final rewrite in Game 2; with Bishop hobbled, a rookie in net, the Lightning never wavered and didn’t allow the Blackhawks to dictate the ending to their redemption story. 

“I've said this many times—this team, we're learning the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the job,” Cooper said. “I think what happened to us the other night was a lesson learned. It's the first time that it happened to us in the playoffs. So what are we going to do about that? Put in that position again, what do you do?

“That position happened midway through the game when we had the 1-0 lead. There go the two quick goals and it's 2-1. Our guys wouldn't be denied. There was a fire on that bench when that happened. There wasn't panic; it was pissed. 

“You got to love that in your team, that in 72 short hours, we're coming back.”

Just about anything can happen in Game 3—why not a triple goaltending switch?—but the panic and fear that briefly gripped the Lightning in Game 1 seems likely to remain on the cutting room floor.