The Tampa Bay Lightning set a modern NHL record with 33 shots in the second period as they cruised to a 6-3 win over the host Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday evening.
Brayden Point had one goal and two assists to lead the Lightning, while Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman each finished with a goal and an assist. Yanni Gourde, Anthony Cirelli and Ryan Callahan also scored for Tampa Bay, which has five wins in its first seven games.
Tampa Bay's 33-shot period marked the most since the NHL started counting shots on goal as an official statistic in the 1955-56 campaign. Both the 2017-18 Montreal Canadiens and the 2018-19 Dallas Stars shared the previous modern record with 30 shots in a period.
Alexandre Fortin, David Kampf and Nick Schmaltz scored for Chicago, which was outshot 55-36 in the game.
Lightning goaltender Louis Domingue made 33 saves to improve to 2-0-0 in a rare start in place of Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Blackhawks goaltender Cam Ward dropped to 3-1-2 despite making 49 saves.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring 3:21 into the first period. Kucherov skated behind Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook and lifted a backhand shot past Ward for his second goal of the season and the 149th of his career.
Chicago evened the score at 1 on a breakaway goal by Fortin with 8:20 left in the first period. Jan Rutta zipped a long pass to lead Fortin, who buried a forehand shot for his first career goal. The 21-year-old rookie thought he had his first goal one night earlier, but a late scoring change rendered him with an assist instead.
The Lightning scored three goals during a wild second period in which they had a 33-6 advantage in shots on goal.
Cirelli started the flurry when he punched in a loose puck near the net at 4:22.
A power-play goal by Gourde increased Tampa Bay's lead to 3-1 with 7:53 remaining in the period. Less than two minutes later, Point turned to his backhand to flip a shot past Ward for his fifth goal in seven contests.
Hedman made it 5-1 when he scored on a wrist shot midway through the third period.
Chicago scored twice in the final five minutes. Kampf knocked in a one-timer with 4:43 to go, and Schmaltz followed suit with 3:48 remaining.
Callahan capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 2:05 left.
--Field Level Media
Tampa Bay | Chicago | |
Brayden Point 3 | Points | Jan Rutta 2 |
Brayden Point 1 | Goals | Alexandre Fortin 1 |
Brayden Point 2 | Assists | Jan Rutta 2 |
Yanni Gourde 1 | Power Play Goals | Nick Schmaltz 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Louis Domingue .917 | Save Percentage | Cam Ward .907 |
Louis Domingue 33 | Saves | Cam Ward 49 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Tampa Bay | 55 | 6 | 1-3 | 3-4 | 10 | 23 |
Chicago | 36 | 3 | 1-4 | 2-3 | 8 | 26 |