In a competitive game three, the Lightning scored first for the third time in three games in this series and held on to win another very competitive game, the third one goal game of this series. Amazingly, none of the three games have gone to overtime despite all being one goal games. Ryan Callahan got the first goal of the night, and Cedric Paquette got the go ahead with just 3:11 left in the game as Tampa defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
Right out of the gates Tampa controlled the tempo, getting the majority of the chances early. They finally connected on a stretch pass down the ice to Ryan Callahan who put it high on Crawford, it hit the crossbar and went down and in. After that, Chicago started getting most of the chances. Overall in the first period, Chicago outshot Tampa 19-7, and they managed to get one goal in before the period expired as Brad Richards drilled a shot from the blue line that went high glove on Ben Bishop and in for the goal. Marian Hossa had a golden opportunity earlier in the first when Bishop vacated his net and Hossa got a steal and went to shoot when Braydon Coburn tripped him for a penalty. Callahan scored 5:09 into the game while Richards scored with 5:38 left in the first.
The second period saw some of the best goaltending of these playoffs. Both teams had great chances to score, but the goalies stood tall. Early on Antoine Vermette got a steal in the Tampa zone and had a breakaway but couldn’t convert. After killing a penalty Tampa had a breakaway from Nikita Kucherov and Crawford made the play. Later in the second Chicago got called for a couple penalties quickly and Tampa had a five one three for over a minute. Still, Chicago held their own and it remained 1-1 as we went into the second intermission.
Early on in the third Chicago had all the momentum as Brandon Saad had a golden opportunity that he could not convert on, but it wouldn’t take long before he got another chance. He got a setup from Hossa in the slot and drilled it high glove on Bishop to break the tie and make it 2-1 Chicago. Just 13 seconds later, the Lightning tied it back up with a goal by Ondrej Palat, who put it in amidst a scrum in front of the net and snuck it past the right post. After over 10 minutes of scoreless action, Victor Hedman showed how brilliant he is as he ran the break like a point guard, put it on net and Paquette crashed the net and scored on an open net with 3:11 to go, and the goal would be the game winner.
It was a gutsy performance by Ben Bishop, who struggled all game with an injury but made 36 saves on 38 shots. Corey Crawford played well most of the game, but made a couple mistakes in the third and his team was sunk.
Kyle Cumiskey played just 7:38 tonight and Trevor van Riemsdyk played 9:01 while Duncan Keith played 31:37 tonight. The first two would have played more if not for an injury to Johnny Oduya in the second. Oduya played in the third, not even close to 100%. While Oduya should be fine for game four, it will be interesting to see how much be plays and how Chicago compensates for that. Game four will be Wednesday night in Chicago, a must win for the Blackhawks.