The Blackhawks looked better on Friday night. But “better” still wasn’t enough to overcome the defending Stanley Cup champions, with the Lightning winning 5-2 in the finale of this season-opening back-to-back.
It was a much better start, though, with the Blackhawks owning advantages in shots (11-7), scoring chances (14-11) and high-danger chances (5-3) in the first 20 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick. Chicago continued its strong start into the second period before a series of blunders by goaltender Collin Delia:
Collin Delia turned over the puck to Steven Stamkos then lost his footing and Ondrej Palat capitalized with a shot into an open net.