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.
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.
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 in the final seconds of the man advantage and charged down the center of the zone, chipping the puck past Soderblom from the hash marks.
Mikheyev made it 2-0 at 18:22 with a wrist shot from above the left face-off circle that beat Soderblom to the five-hole with Cernak providing a screen.
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.
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.
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 the Tampa Bay on July 1.
Kantserov scored to at 19:11 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).
