Raw Charge
Summary
The Tampa Bay Lightning were undisputedly better than the Chicago Blackhawks on paper heading into their game on Thursday night. That doesn’t always translate to a victory in a league where the difference between great and terrible is razor thin. The Lightning avoided the upset as they scored twice in the first and twice in the third to beat Chicago, 4-1. Andrei Vasilevskiy celebrated his 600th career start with a 24-save effort to pick up the victory. Ilya Mikheyev scored twice against his former team and Victor Hedman scored his first power play goal since April 9, 2025, Ryan McDonagh scored for the second game in a row and Erik Cernak had two assists. The Lightning moved to 8-0 at home this season while Vasilevskiy improved his record against Chicago to 15-1. Much like they did against Detroit, the Lightning decided that the best way to prevent goals was to keep Chicago from having the puck. It took until the 11:33 mark for Chicago to get its first shot attempt on Vasilevskiy. By then, the Lightning were playing with the lead (again). A revamped first unit with both Charle-Edouard D’Astous and John Carlson on the ice left an opening on the blueline on the second unit. Victor Hedman got the call on the first power play attempt and he didn’t let it go to waste. The captain hit Anthony Cirelli with a nice diagonal pass through the neutral zone that caught Chicago off-balance a bit. Hedman didn’t stop skating as he cut to the slot and had a step on the defense. Cirelli fed him the puck and the Lightning’s leading scorer against the Blackhawks added another tally as he beat Soderblom with a wrist shot. Chicago got their legs going as the period went on and seemed intent on erasing the “soft” moniker bestowed on them against Florida. They won some nice puck battles and landed 13 hits (partly because they were chasing the puck). Cole Smith landed a hit on J.J. Moser in the Lightning zone which created a turnover. Smith then drove the net, but Vasilevskiy was there to make the save. The Lightning bent, but didn’t concede, and it was an ex-Blackhawk that extended the lead. Again, it was a defenseman that led the way as Erik Cernak worked a pass to Ilya Mikheyev on an entry and then drove to the net, which created a little space for Mikheyev to walk in and sling a shot around Sam Rinzel that beat Soderblom through the five hole. It had to be a little deflating for the ‘Hawks, who had put a pretty good five-minute stretch together, but couldn’t turn it into a goal. Their best chance came just after the Mikheyev goal as Hedman tried another give-and-go in the neutral zone, but the give part was picked off by Ryan Donato. He worked the puck up to Frank Nazar who zoomed in and snapped a shot on net. Vasilevskiy flashed the glove and made the save to keep it 2-0. Through the middle frame, Chicago tried to slow the game down. They did a much better job of jamming up the neutral zone and things turned into a grind. There were 30 face-offs in the period, and while the Lightning won 20 of them, the choppiness of the game held their offense at bay. The highlight of the period was Jeff Viel squaring up with 29-year-old “rookie” Dillon Boucher. Viel lost on points, but he landed a nice right hand that cut Boucher above the right eye. Other than that, it took almost seventeen minutes for the Lightning to put some sustained pressure on Soderblom. First he moved quickly to his left to stop Kucherov on a rush play, then he gloved aside a shot from Mikheyev while sitting on his rear end. Chicago had a glimmer of hope with about five minutes to go in the frame when Frank Nazar tipped a deflected puck past Vasilevskiy, but his stick was somewhere near the tesla coils when he made contact with the puck. The officials on the ice quickly waved it off and replay confirmed that the puck had been played with a high stick. With the game slowed down to the speed of traffic on the Dan Ryan at rush hour, Chicago kept things fairly close in terms of shot attempts (19-16 Lightning) but the home team was getting the better chances as they added six more high-danger chances to their total. Vasilevskiy was able to keep focus despite a lack of action making a nice stop on Conor Bedard early in the period and withstanding a rush from Andrew Mangiapane that ended up with the veteran forward sprawled into the net. The Lightning have had trouble over the last few games in closing out games with the lead. It’s good news that they’ve had leads going into the final frame, but their inability to finish off games with the same intensity that they start with has been a problem. That wasn’t the case against the Blackhawks. Statistically, Chicago had their best period as they generated 12 scoring chances and put 11 shots on net, but many of those came from distance, and there was little opportunity for follow-up. Most importantly, the Lightning found a way to increase their lead (Ryan McDonagh absolutely smoking a slapshot past Soderblom), and put the game out of reach with Ilya Mikheyev potting his second of the night. The two goals in roughly two minutes put things out of reach. Chicago lone bit of bright light in the drubbing was that they weren’t shut out. Roman Kantserov continued his hot start to the season as he tipped home his eighth goal of the season with just 48 seconds left in the game. Victor Hedman (4) [Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel] Power Play. 1-0 Lightning Power play goal for Tampa Bay!Scored by Victor Hedman with 15:48 left in the 1st. Assisted by Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel.TBL: 1 | CHI: 0#CHIvsTBL #GoBolts #Blackhawks — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T00:31:34.135233Z Ilya Mikheyev (3) [Erik Cernak, Pontus Holmberg] 2-0 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Ilya Mikheyev with 01:38 left in the 1st. Assisted by Erik Cernak and Pontus Holmberg.TBL: 2 | CHI: 0#CHIvsTBL #GoBolts #Blackhawks — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T00:51:35.590437Z Ryan McDonagh (2) [Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point] 3-0 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Ryan McDonagh with 17:22 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point.TBL: 3 | CHI: 0#CHIvsTBL #GoBolts #Blackhawks — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T02:32:27.620831Z Ilya Mikheyev (4) [Erik Cernak, Pontus Holmberg] 4-0 Lightning Tampa Bay goal!Scored by Ilya Mikheyev with 14:52 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Erik Cernak and Zemgus Girgensons.TBL: 4 | CHI: 0#CHIvsTBL #GoBolts #Blackhawks — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T02:42:25.931726Z Roman Kantserov (8) [Sam Rinzel, Ethan Del Mastro] 4-1 Lightning Chicago goal!Scored by Roman Kantserov with 00:50 left in the 3rd. Assisted by Sam Rinzel and Ethan Del Mastro.TBL: 4 | CHI: 1#CHIvsTBL #GoBolts #Blackhawks — NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) 2026-11-06T03:04:54.698950Z