TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Ross Colton scored two goals and added an assist, Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point both had a goal and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Friday night.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves and improved to 13-0-0 against the Blackhawks in the regular season. He went 1-1 during the 2015 Stanley Cup Final in which Chicago beat the Lightning in six games.
Brandon Hagel added an empty-netter in his first game against his former team.
Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper coached his 700th NHL game, becoming the 49th to do it. He is 426-215-59.
Calvin de Haan and Alex DeBrincat each had a goal, and Kevin Lankinen turned aside 38 shots for the Blackhawks, who lost 4-0 at Florida on Thursday night and have dropped seven of nine (2-5-2).
After blowing a two-goal lead, the Lightning took a 4-2 advantage on a pair of goals by Colton in the second. After a rebound effort at 6:12, Colton then scored with 7:45 to go from just outside the crease off a between the legs backhand pass from Nicholas Paul.
Paul and Nikita Kucherov had two assists apiece.
Stamkos opened the scoring on Tampa Bay’s 11th shot 6:11 into the game.
Point made it 2-0 from in-close at 10:12 of the first.
The Blackhawks battled back later in the first it to tie it at 2 on goals by de Haan and DeBrincat, who got his 39th this season.
De Haan got his third goal of the season, and second in three games, when his bouncing shot from the blue line eluded Vasilevskiy 1:59 after Point’s goal.
DeBrincat got the equalizer during a power play with 2:39 left in the first, a period where Chicago was outshot 19-9.
NUMBERS
Stamkos became the 56th NHL player to reach 470 goals. He has four goals and eights points during a five-game point streak. ... Tampa Bay is 9-0-1 in its last 10 games against Chicago.
UP NEXT
Blackhawks: Host Arizona on Sunday night.
Lightning: Former Tampa Bay star and member of the 2004 Stanley Cup championship squad, Martin St. Louis makes his first appearance in Tampa on Saturday night as the interim coach of the Montreal Canadiens.
“I’ll run into him tomorrow and get the skinny on what’s going on with him,” Cooper said. “He’s got that team pointed in the right direction."
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