Ilya Mikheyev Scores Twice Against His Old Team as Lightning Beat Blackhawks 4-1 to Improve to 8-0 at Home

Ilya Mikheyev scored twice against the team he played for the last two seasons, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 on Thursday night at Benchmark International Arena to stay perfect at home. The win pushed Tampa Bay to 8-0-0 in Tampa and 10-3-2 overall, extending a season-opening home winning streak that had already become a franchise record two nights earlier.

Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh also scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy came within 49 seconds of a shutout. Chicago, which lost at the Florida Panthers the night before, fell to 4-12-1 and has now dropped five straight.

How the Lightning built the lead

Hedman opened the scoring on a power play at 4:12 of the first period, joining the rush, charging down the middle and beating Chicago goalie Arvid Soderblom five-hole, according to the NHL.com recap. It was the defenseman's fourth goal of the season, with Anthony Cirelli credited with the feed.

Mikheyev doubled the lead late in the first period with a wrist shot from above the left faceoff circle that slipped between Soderblom's pads, with Erik Cernak screening in front. Chicago thought it had cut the deficit in the second period when Frank Nazar put the puck in at 15:04, but video review confirmed a high stick and the goal came off the board.

The third period belonged to Tampa Bay early. McDonagh ripped a slap shot high to the glove side at 2:38 off a pass from Jake Guentzel. Less than three minutes later, Mikheyev tipped in a cross-ice pass from Cernak at the edge of the crease for his second of the night and fourth of the season. Chicago rookie Roman Kantserov spoiled the shutout in the final minute by redirecting a Sam Rinzel shot.

The goals, as reported by the AP and NHL.com:

Vasilevskiy finished with 24 saves by the AP's count (NHL.com listed 25), while Soderblom stopped 31 shots for Chicago. The night also included a second-period fight between Tampa Bay's Jeffrey Viel and Chicago's Dillon Boucher.

Mikheyev's payoff against his old team

Mikheyev was one of the Lightning's first moves of the summer. Tampa Bay signed the speedy winger to a four-year, $15.4 million contract on July 1, the opening day of free agency, a deal that carries a $3.85 million salary cap hit through the 2029-30 season. The same day, the Lightning sent forward Nick Paul to the Toronto Maple Leafs and signed Viel, the forward who dropped the gloves Thursday.

Mikheyev, originally signed by Toronto as an undrafted free agent in 2019, also played for the Vancouver Canucks before spending the last two seasons in Chicago. General manager Julien BriseBois described him at the signing as an excellent forechecker who brings a lot of speed, and that profile showed up on both goals Thursday, one off the rush and one from the blue paint.

Mikheyev said after the game, according to NHL.com, that "if you play at home and you score an early goal it's a huge advantage." Coach Jon Cooper credited Chicago as a young team and said his group played a steady, solid game.

Cernak and the defense set the tone

Erik Cernak had a hand in both Mikheyev goals, screening Soderblom on the first and threading the cross-ice pass on the second, and finished with two assists, according to NHL.com. Two of Tampa Bay's four goals came from defensemen, with Hedman leading the rush on the power play and McDonagh stepping into his slap shot early in the third. Cernak said the Lightning knew what they had to do, and Hedman, asked about the power play, said he wants to be back on that unit, according to NHL.com.

Tampa Bay also got forward Zemgus Girgensons back from a three-game absence with a lower-body injury, and he picked up an assist in his return.

A home streak with few modern peers

The Lightning set a franchise record Tuesday when Brayden Point scored twice in a 4-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings for their seventh straight home win to open the season. Thursday made it eight. According to NHL.com, Tampa Bay is only the fifth team since the 2016-17 season to start a season with at least eight straight home wins.

The Lightning are also on a five-game point streak (3-0-2), and Point extended his personal point streak to six games, with four goals and four assists in that span, according to NHL.com. He also has points in 12 straight games against Chicago dating to 2020-21.

The Kucherov backdrop

The hot stretch has come during an unsettled week off the ice. Nikita Kucherov, the franchise's all-time points leader, asked the Lightning for a trade on Oct. 31 and said he would not re-sign, while BriseBois said Tampa Bay has no intention of dealing him. Since that request, the Lightning have kept winning at home, with Point, Mikheyev and the defense corps sharing the scoring load.

Chicago's slide

For the Blackhawks, Thursday completed a winless two-game swing through Florida that began with a 5-3 loss to the Panthers in Sunrise on Wednesday. Chicago is 0-7-1 on the road, 0-4-1 in its last five games and 1-7-1 in its last nine. Kantserov's goal did extend his point streak to seven games, tying for the sixth-longest by a rookie in Blackhawks history and the longest since Jonathan Toews went 10 games in 2007-08, according to NHL.com. Coach Jeff Blashill said Patrick Kane, who has an upper-body injury, is not expected to play Saturday.

What's next

The home streak goes on hold. Tampa Bay opens a four-game road trip Saturday night at the Minnesota Wild, so the next chance to push the perfect home mark to nine will not come until that trip is over. Chicago visits the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.