Mikheyev scores twice, Lightning defeat Blackhawks to stay undefeated at home

TAMPA -- Ilya Mikheyev scored twice, and the Tampa Bay Lightning extended their season-opening home win streak to eight games with a 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at Benchmark International Arena on Thursday.

Tampa Bay became the fifth team over the past 10 years (since 2016-17) to begin a season with eight or more consecutive home wins. The others are the Boston Bruins (14 games in 2022-23), Florida Panthers (11 games in 2021-22), Vegas Golden Knights (eight games in 2024-25) and Montreal Canadiens (10 games in 2016-17).

Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh scored for the Lightning (10-3-2), who extended their point streak to five games (3-0-2). Erik Cernak had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves.

"We didn't get a ton of big-time chances, but overall I liked the way we played," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper. "We played a pretty steady, solid team and give Chicago credit, that's a young team and they kept coming and kept coming. It showed because they scored in the end, but we had to get our job done tonight and we did."

Roman Kantserov scored the lone goal for the Blackhawks (4-12-1), who have lost five straight (0-4-1) and eight of their past nine (1-7-1), including 5-3 at the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. Arvid Soderblom made 31 saves.

"The effort is there, guys are working, we have a great group of guys in that locker room," Chicago forward Ryan Donato said. "Guys that want to compete and want to win. I think it's a matter of time if we continue to work hard. Obviously there are some bounces that could go our way too."

Hedman gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 4:12 of the first period after he joined the rush, charged down the center of the zone and whipped the puck five-hole from the hash marks.

"I want to be back on (the power play), I think I can still bring a lot to the table when it comes to special teams," Hedman said. "PK and PP, so it was good to be out there."

Mikheyev made it 2-0 at 18:22 with a wrist shot from above the left face-off circle that beat Soderblom between the pads with Cernak providing a screen.

"We were playing the same way the whole 60 minutes," Cernak said. "In the Detroit game (a 4-2 win on Tuesday) we played really well the first period and kind of slowed down. We knew what we had to do tonight."

Frank Nazar appeared to cut the deficit to 2-1 at 15:04 of the second period, but video review confirmed the call on the ice that the puck was hit with a high stick before it went into the net.

"It definitely feels like some things aren't going in right now," Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic said. "Sometimes teams go through that, but I think we found a bunch of chances where we almost have a couple of good looks and nothing seems to be going in the net for us right now."

McDonagh extended the Lightning lead to 3-0 at 2:38 of the third period when he beat Soderblom high to the glove side with a slap shot off a pass from Jake Guentzel.

Mikheyev made it 4-0 at 5:08 with a tip-in from the blue paint off a cross-ice pass from Cernak.

"If you play at home and you score an early goal it's a huge advantage," Mikheyev said. "You feel confident right away, and it's more comfortable, of course."

Mikheyev spent the past two seasons with the Blackhawks before signing a four-year, $15.4 million contract (average annual value of $3.85 million) with Tampa Bay on July 1.

"How about that, he gets to play against his old team and scores two," Cooper said. "That's pretty cool. Good for him."

Kantserov scored at 19:10 to cut the deficit to 4-1, redirecting a Sam Rinzel shot past Vasilevskiy from in front.

With the goal, Kantserov extended his point streak to seven games (five goals, two assists).

"He's a guy that does go to the net and if you look at a lot of his goals, they are around the net," Chicago coach Jeff Blashill said of Kantserov. "He's a smart player. He's good around the net. He's got good hand-eye coordination, so he can tip pucks. He's a good shooter."

NOTES: Lightning forward Brayden Point had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (four goals, four assists). He also extended his point streak against the Blackhawks to 12 games (18 points; seven goals, 11 assists) dating to 2020-21, which is the second-longest active streak by a Tampa Bay player. Only Nikita Kucherov has a longer streak (15 games vs. Vegas Golden Knights). ... Tampa Bay forward Zemgus Girgensons had one assist and five shots on goal in 15:41 of ice time in his return to the lineup after missing the past three games with a lower-body injury. ... Kantserov tied the sixth-longest point streak by a rookie in Blackhawks history and the lengthiest since Jonathan Toews (10 games) in 2007-08. ... Blashill said he does not expect forward Patrick Kane (upper body) to play Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes.