Lightning clinch playoff berth in win against Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- The Tampa Bay Lightning clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 7-4 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Tuesday.

Brayden Point had a goal and two assists, and Alex Killorn scored twice for the Lightning (33-14-2), who have qualified for the playoffs for four straight seasons and won the Cup in 2020. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves.
"There's a high expectation in this organization to make the playoffs every single year, and you want it to become the norm," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "These guys have done that, so I couldn't be more proud of them. To put yourself in a situation to compete for a Stanley Cup, you have to make the playoffs, and the guys have done that.
"Who knows where it's going to go from here, but it always feels good when you step over that hurdle."
Tampa Bay trails the Carolina Hurricanes by three points for first place and the Florida Panthers by one point for second place in the Discover Central Division. The Lightning and Hurricanes each have played two fewer games than the Panthers.
Patrick Kane had two assists, and Malcolm Subban made 15 saves in relief in the second and third periods for the Blackhawks (22-22-5), who were 1-for-7 on the power play. Kevin Lankinen allowed three goals on 11 shots in the first.
The Blackhawks are sixth in the eight-team Central and trail the fourth-place Nashville Predators by seven points for the final playoff spot from the division; Chicago has played two fewer games.
"If we're going to be competitive and win hockey games at the end, we're going to need to be better," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "I thought we had some bad things happen to us, some adversity, which certainly is part of it. But I'd like us to respond better, just being willing to compete defensively. But we weren't ready to compete hard enough away from the puck to give ourselves a chance to win."
Erik Cernak intercepted Riley Stillman's pass and scored on a breakaway to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead 28 seconds into the first period.

Yanni Gourde deflected Mikhail Sergachev's pass in front to make it 2-0 at 4:15.
Brandon Hagel cut it to 2-1 at 11:59 when his pass behind the net redirected off Lightning forwards Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow.
Alex Barré-Boulet scored for a second straight game to make it 3-1 at 15:04. He led Tampa Bay with six shots on goal in his ninth NHL game.
Wyatt Kalynuk cut it to 3-2 at 17:59 with a shot from the top of the right face-off circle.
Point made it 4-2 at 6:40 of the second period on a wraparound. He has five goals and 12 points in his past nine games.
"As of late the past couple of games, pucks have been going in the net, but I don't know if I'm doing anything really different," Point said. "Just trying to play the same way and make sure little details in the game are good."
Coleman gave Tampa Bay a 5-2 lead off a backhand feed from Tyler Johnson at 9:21.

Killorn made it 6-2 at 13:39 when he redirected Sergachev's shot for a power-play goal.
Duncan Keith's shot from the point cut it to 6-3 at 19:28 of the second period, and Dominik Kubalik made it 6-4 with a power-play goal at 13:51 of the third.
Killorn scored into an empty net with 51 seconds remaining for the 7-4 final.
"We can't give up that many goals," Hagel said. "[It] starts with not being good enough without the puck. At times we were really good but at times we weren't, and they made us pay."
NOTES: The Blackhawks played with five defensemen after Adam Boqvist left the game in the second period with a broken right wrist. Colliton said Boqvist is out for the season. … Lightning defenseman David Savard did not play because of a lower-body injury. Cooper said Savard was kept out more as a precaution and he is expected to play against the Dallas Stars on Thursday. … Blackhawks forward Mike Hardman made his NHL debut. He did not have a shot on goal in 10:16 of ice time. … Chicago is 2-for-22 on the power play in its past six games. … The Lightning went 7-0-1 against the Blackhawks this season; Vasilevskiy was 7-0-0 and is 11-0-0 in the regular season against Chicago.