PREVIEW: Blackhawks at Lightning - March 18, 2021

TIME: 6 p.m. CT
TV:NBCSCH | RADIO:WGN 720-AM / TUDN 1200-AM | STREAM:
NHL.TV
&
MyTeamsApp
The Blackhawks road trip rolls on to Tampa as Chicago gets set to face the Lightning for the sixth meeting this season on Thursday night.

TEAM RECORDS

CHI: 14-11-5, 33 PTS
TB: 20-6-2, 42 PTS

LAST TIME OUT

Patrick Kane, Philipp Kurashev and Brandon Hagel all scored as the Blackhawks got out to a 3-1 lead in Florida, but the Panthers rebounded to take a 6-3 win with two empty-net tallies. Kevin Lankinen stopped 30 of the 34 shots he faced in the loss, Chicago's second in as many outings.
Tampa Bay picked up their 20th win of the season on Tuesday night in Dallas, defeating the Stars in a shootout, 4-3. Brayden Point, Mathieu Joseph and Steven Stamkos all tallied in regulation for the Lightning while Andrei Vasilevskiy notched his ninth straight win.
Chicago is 1-3-1 in five meetings with the defending champions this season, with two of the three games between the teams earlier this month settled in overtime or a shootout.

AGAINST TAMPA

Alex DeBrincat paces the team with four goals and shares the club lead with five points this year against the Lightning. Dominik Kubalik notched his first career hat trick in the Blackhawks' victory on Feb. 27, 2020 at Tampa Bay.
Alex Killorn is on a four-game goal streak against the Blackhawks and has recorded a point in all five games (4G, 4A) to lead the Lightning for scoring against Chicago this season. Vasilevskiy is 4-0-0 in four starts against the Blackhawks this season, allowing eight total goals total on 122 combined shots.

STREAKING

With points in Monday's loss to Florida, Hagel (2G, 1A), David Kampf (3A), Kane (1G, 3A) and Kubalik (1G, 1A) and
Duncan Keith
(1G, 1A) are all riding three-game point streaks.

BOQER FACE

With a goal on Saturday against the Panthers, Adam Boqvist picked up his 13th point of the season (2G, 11A), matching his total from last season just 18 games in. He recorded 13 points (4G, 9A) in 41 regular-season games during the 2019-20 campaign.
He has three multi-point games over his last nine skates and the 20-year-old shares 17th among NHL blueliners in points per game this season.

HAGEL HEATING UP

Hagel registered his third goal of the season on Monday and has markers in back-to-back games for the first time in his NHL career. His three-game point streak (2G, 1A) matches a season high (Feb. 27 - March 4). Hagel shares 12th in the league among rookies with 10 points (3G, 7A) this year and his seven helpers share seventh among first-year skaters.