Goalies, goalies, goalies: Blackhawks finish three-game set with Lightning

Two quick things before the preview. First, I’d like to recognize the impact of Walter Gretzky. Although he’s know as “Canada’s Hockey Dad,” he left a mark across hockey culture in general and we wouldn’t know hockey the way it is without his legacy. Thank you Walter.

Next, let’s give another shout out to Brent Seabrook. Thank you for all you did for the team, you will be missed!

OK, now let’s get to Sunday’s afternoon game in Chicago, the last of a three-game series against the Lightning. Hopefully the outcome of this game will help us all forget that heartbreaking overtime loss on Thursday with 0.1 seconds left on the clock. Which reminds me: wouldn’t it be amazing to could end a game in regulation, Blackhawks?

Friday’s game saw the Blackhawk’s recover from trailing the Lightning 3-2 in the third period and force the game into overtime. Philipp Kurashev scored the only goal in the shootout as Malcom Subban shutout the opposing Lightning. That win for Chicago ended a six-game winning streak for the Lightning.

Alex DeBrincat scored his 100th career goal with help from Adam Boqvist’s pass during the Blackhawk’s power play in the first period, which had them trailing 2-1 at the end of the first. Although the second period saw the Hawks tally just 5 shots on goal to the Lightning’s 18, DeBrincat managed to net a goal assisted by Patrick Kane’s lovely pass, which ended the period tied 2-2. Ryan McDonagh increased the Lightning’s lead to 3-2 early in the third period while Dominik Kubalik returned the favor a few minutes later, sending the teams into overtime.

Calvin de Haan was injured during Friday’s game after blocking a shot by Palat early in the third period and did not return. With neither team is scheduled for a morning skate before Sunday afternoon’s game, coach Jeremy Colliton provided the only update on de Haan:

As the stars would have it, the NHL horoscopes warn that not only does “chaos reign” this week, but so does the Lightning’s goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy (who is a Cancer) with a .938 save percentage. But, apparently the Blackhawks’ horoscope bodes well with this news as “Taurus goalie Kevin Lankinen and Sagittarius Malcolm Subban have been a solid combination in net.” And the stars have advised the team to focus on this aspect this week “Do: Goalies goalies goalies Don’t: Go away from what works.” Unfortunately for the Hawks, somehow, according to the favorable moon for the Lightning this week, “The thing about the Lightning is they make the good teams look pretty bad.” Wow. Ok.

On that note, let’s go Haws!

Tale of the Tape

Blackhawks — Statistic — Lightning

47.66% (17th) — Corsi For — 49.35% (17th)

47.35% (26th) — Expected goals for — 49.76% (18th)

3.08 (13th) — Goals per game — 3.50 (2nd)

2.88 (15th) — Goals against per game — 2.00 (1st)

47.1% (25th) — Faceoffs — 49.3% (18th)

31.5% (2nd) — Power play — 25.3% (9th)

76.0% (23rd) — Penalty kill — 88.3% (3rd)

Projected lineups

Blackhawks

DeBrincat — Suter — Kane

Janmark — Soderberg — Kurashev

Kubalik — Kampf — Hagel

Highmore — Wallmark — Carpenter

Keith — Mitchell

Bowery — Boqvist

Zadorov — Murphy

Subban/Lankinen

Lightning

Palat — Point — Cirelli

Killorn — Gourde — Stamkos

Goodrow — Johnson — Coleman

Maroon — Joseph — Volkov

Hedman — Foote

McDonagh — Schenn

Sergachev — Cernak

McElhinney/Vasilevskiy

How to watch

When: 1:30 p.m.

Where: United Center, Chicago

TV: NBC Sports Chicago

Live stream: NBC Sports app, NHL.tv