The preseason tour of Canada rolls on and the momentum continues to grow. The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 in Winnipeg Wednesday night. With the win, the Lightning move to 2-0 in preseason play.
Steven Stamkos opened up the scoring for the Lightning on a feed in front from Simon Gagne, the first of three points for Gagne skating in his first game in a Lightning sweater. After the Blackhawks tied the game at one, Carter Ashton connected on the powerplay to give the Lightning the lead. Simon Gagne gave the team a 2-goal lead, scoring his first as a member of the Lightning. The Blackhawks got within one but Blair Jones gave the Lightning an insurance goal to finish off the scoring and give the Lightning their second win in as many nights. In goal, Cedrick Desjardins was solid, especially in the dying moments of the game, holding off the Blackhawks on a 6-3 advantage.
Plenty of good signs to go around in this one; Simon Gagne making a major impact on the score sheet and beating a Blackhawks team made up of a lot of regulars that will skate with the team in October. You have to love the firepower on a first powerplay made up of Gagne, Lecavalier, St. Louis, Stamkos and Kubina. As the game went on, you could almost feel that the group was "getting" the 1-3-1 system and the results were starting to show on the ice. Finally Blair Jones, after Nick Boynton threw a questionable hit, went right over to challenge Boynton and leveled him with a nasty left hook. And if that was not enough, Jones then went on to score later in the game.
Even though there were plenty of good signs and a lot of good work in this one, there is still much to be done. The tour of Canada moves on to Edmonton tomorrow night.
Up Next
Tampa Bay at Edmonton
Tonight, 9pm
TV: NHL Network (Tape delay, 2am)
Radio: 1250 WHNZ
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2010.