Bolts pepper Chicago goalie with shots on goal

by Gary Shelton on October 22, 2018 · 2 comments

in general, Tampa Bay Lightning

Cirelli had nine shots for the Bolts./CARMEN MANDATO

Monday, 3 a.m.

This must be what it is like on the wrong side of the firing squad.

The Tampa Bay Lightning kept the  bullets flying at Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Cam Ward Sunday night in a 6-3 win. The Bolts fired a franchise-record 55 shots at Ward, including an NHL record 33 in the second period.

It was all enough to increase the Bolts' record to 5-1-1. In their last 14 games against Chicago, Tampa Bay is 12-0-2.

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Domingue stopped 33 shots in second win./JEFFREY S. KING

“That was, I don’t know, that’s probably a one-off, one of those," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "There was a lot of rebounds that were probably racking up some shot totals, but everything was hitting the net. The guys were getting their shots through.

:You need a lot to go right for something like that to happen. That’s why it doesn’t happen that often. The guys were skating. They were on top of it. Chicago made a push in the third, as we knew they would, so we needed every one of those.”

The Bolts' Anthony Cirelli led his team with nine shots, while Tyler Johnson had six. Five different Lightning players had four.

It was a nice rebound game after the Bolts lost in overtime the night before to the Wild.

“Those are the things you have to guard against," Cooper said. "We go into the third with the lead, that was talked about in the locker room. You look at both those teams, I don’t know how many shots, probably 80-some shots in the game, there was a lot of skill on both sides and a lot of speed. Probably an entertaining game. That’s what you’re going to get. We’re just happy we were on the right side.”

"I thought as a team tonight, we did a good job of putting pucks through, getting pucks past their sticks, past their blocks, just getting them on net and good things happen," Cirelli said. "When you get that many shots on net, some of them are going to go in.”

Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Cirelli, Victor Hedman, Yanni Gourde and Ryan Callahan all scored for Tampa Bay.

For the Bolts, Louis Domingue stopped 33 shots to earn his second win of the season.

“From up there, the first period looked good on me, but I wasn’t happy with my period," Domingue said. "I thought my feet were bad. It’s really uncharacteristic of me to make saves like that. I’m a guy that keeps the game simple. That shows that my feet weren’t good early on. That’ll happen when you don’t play often, those things are going to happen. But I found a way to make saves and come back in a tough building tied after one and the team took over.”

Domingue made a sprawling save at the end of the first period.

“You need your goalie to make saves," Cooper said. "You have to have it. It was kind of a weird period because we kind of dominated the first half and they took over and dominated the second half. You need your goalie to make a save, and that was the big save for us. He keeps the score close and then we were able to get a few goals.”

The Lightning continue on their season-long five game road trip Wednesday when they take on the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center (9:30 p.m. Eastern puck drop).

 

 

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