Blackhawks Postgame Musings: Donato, Knight stay hot as they steal two points from Lightning

The Chicago Blackhawks' early-season magic continued in the Sunshine State as they extended their point streak to five games. They have had a chance to win all eight of their games this season, and they somehow found a way to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Thursday.

Frank Nazar opened the scoring with a power-play goal in the first period. Ryan Donato extended his goal streak to four games to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead midway through the second period. He wrapped up his night by scoring the game-winning goal in the final minute of the third period.

This was a game the Blackhawks had no business winning. They were dominated at 5-on-5 and failed to score on a four-minute power play early in the third period. However, Spencer Knight had yet another great outing, and the team in front of him never gave up, finding a way to steal two points.

"I thought we worked extremely hard, competed extremely hard,” head coach Jeff Blashill said after the game. “We make some mistakes. And when you make mistakes, Knighter has been great. He makes big saves at big moments, and it gives us a chance to win."

Lukas Reichel Has a Typical Game

With Andre Burakovsky out of action, Lukas Reichel got the chance to start his night on the top line with Connor Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi. As I wrote before the game, this was a huge chance for the young forward to impress the coaching staff and front office. While his name has been in trade rumors since the summer, he could play his way back into the long-term plans with some consistent play. He had only one shot on goal in his two games since his three-point night against the St. Louis Blues last week.

Reichel’s night was highlighted with the lone assist on Donato’s second-period goal. Outside of that, it was another unnoticeable night for Reichel. He was on the ice for both Tampa goals, took only one shot, but blocked two shots. His 10:58 of ice time was the least of all the Blackhawks, as Donato took his place on the first line in the third period.

With Reichle on the ice, the Blackhawks were outshot 7-3, out-attempted 22-7, and gave up nine scoring chances while creating five. He’s not making his case for more playing time with too many unimpactful shifts.

Sam Rinzel’s Rough Night

Sam Rinzel will have a scar above his right eye to always remember his first game in Tampa Bay. It’s normal for a young defenseman to have an up-and-down night, and we certainly got the full spectrum of play tonight. In the first period, he made a great stick play to create an odd-man rush going the other way that somehow wasn’t finished by Colton Dach.

Late in the opening frame, he was drilled face-first into the boards by Mitchell Chaffee. This was a textbook boarding call, or at least interference, since the puck was long gone. But no penalty was called on Chaffee, and the Lightning got a power play out of it because Nick Foligno went after him. Rinzel went off for some stitches and was sporting a black eye by the end of the night, but he returned for the second period.

Rinzel struggled with his puck management most of the night and took a bad holding penalty with under seven minutes to play. He had four shot attempts, a takeaway, and a blocked shot. In his 12:45 of 5-on-6 ice time, the Blackhawks were even with 15 shot attempts taken and allowed. The Lightning did have an 11-5 shots on goal advantage, but the Blackhawks led 9-8 in scoring chances and 4-2 in high-danger scoring chances.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• One of the most impressive things about the start of the Blashill era has been the structure of the Blackhawks' play. Tonight was the first time we saw that structure breakdown for extended periods of time. There were quite a few shifts, usually against the Nikita Kucherov line, where they looked lost in the defensive zone. Fortunately, they were able to survive it.

• The Blackhawks entered the night leading the league in penalty minutes. The discipline was much better tonight, with only eight penalty minutes. However, the last two penalties are the kind that drive Blashill nuts. Landon Slaggert took an avoidable hooking penalty moments after the Lightning killed off a four-minute penalty. We already talked about Rinzel’s holding penalty, which was unnecessary. If the Blackhawks can clean up these types of infractions, they will increase their chances of winning more games.

• The Blackhawks got that four-minute power play after Yanni Gourde got his stick into Bedard’s mouth. Thousands of fans will be using a picture of his bloody jersey as their new social media profile pictures.

• We need to give all the flowers we can to Teuvo Teravainen and the two plays he made to set up Donato’s game-winning goal. First, he used a quick stick to strip the puck from Kucherov. Then, instead of forcing it to Donato, he saw Nazar streaking up the ice, paused, and lobbed a lead pass for him. Donato joined the rush and slammed home the rebound. Teravainen leads the team with seven assists and his second in points with eight.

• Tonight was the first time the Blackhawks beat Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy in 14 regular-season games. He entered the night 13-0-0 with a 2.14 goals-against average and .930 save percentage. Of course, the Blackhawks did beat him one other time – in Game 6 of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final.