The Chicago Blackhawks were under siege most of the night but pushed the Tampa Bay Lightning to the shootout and ultimately fell 2–1 on Friday night, picking up their third point out of a possible four on a back-to-back weekend.
The Blackhawks opened the scoring with 2:18 left in the first period on the power play. A quick pass from Oliver Moore along the left-wing boards and a subtle touch pass by Nick Lardis sent Ryan Greene skating into the slot, where he snapped a wrister into the net to make it 1-0.
the Greene machine👊 pic.twitter.com/E1Jfbahuxr
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 24, 2026
The Lightning answered with 1:18 remaining in the second, tying the game at 1-1. After the Blackhawks lost a board battle, Anthony Cirelli got the puck to Brandon Hagel in the middle, who then threaded a pass to Nikita Kucherov down low. Kucherov finished the play with a slick backhand while cutting across the front of the crease.
Kucherov ties it off a nice feed from Hagel pic.twitter.com/jHfbZvuLkt
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 24, 2026
After a scoreless third period and overtime, the game headed to a shootout, which stretched to five rounds before Dominic James scored the game-winning goal to give the Lightning a 2-1 win.
Dominic James (former Blackhawks prospect) scores to win it for Tampa Bay pic.twitter.com/Bc4mrTYYTW
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 24, 2026
Notes
Well, this wasn’t a pretty game by any stretch of the imagination, but the Blackhawks came away with a point and pushed another elite team all the way to the shootout. Yes, a lot of that was thanks to some excellent goaltending from Arvid Soderblom, but there’s a good deal of credit to be shared with the group in front of him as well.
Every period was lopsided in terms of puck possession and quality of chances, but this is one area where the Blackhawks noticeably improved as the game went on. Like, they did a fairly good job suppressing shots on goal against, especially considering the sheer volume of attempts. Chicago went from being out-attempted 17-5 in the first and 24-10 in the second to eventually getting much closer to even play at 17-15 in the third. That’s still the Blackhawks owning just 34 percent of attempts overall, but climbing to 46.88 percent in the third period on the second night of a back-to-back against a possession juggernaut like the Lightning is genuinely impressive. There was a sense of quiet confidence that built over the course of the night, and by the third, the transitions were working smoothly, defense was flipping to offense cleanly, and the Blackhawks were starting to find real holes in the Lightning’s game to exploit.
In terms of shot suppression, the Lightning generated 58 (!) total attempts against at 5-on-5, but the Blackhawks held them to less than half of that getting through to the net, with just 26 shots on goal. They also did a decent job limiting how many chances made it through, even if the most dangerous ones still slipped past: Chicago allowed only 17 of the Lightning’s 31 total scoring chances to be on net, though 11 of those were high-danger looks. Again, considering how much time Tampa spent in the offensive zone and the raw volume of attempts they generated, those are solid suppression numbers overall. The Blackhawks did a good job getting sticks in passing lanes, bodies in shooting lanes, cleaning up rebounds to limit second chances, and disrupting the Lightning cycle as much as possible. Combine that with Soderblom being big when it mattered, that’s how the Blackhawks managed to grind their way to at least a point.
Ryan Greene speaks with the Media after the Blackhawks shootout loss to the Lightning
🎥:#Blackhawks https://t.co/EJvK1lfHUu pic.twitter.com/Y38haLyFpe
— Nick McCardell (@UKhoops1_BBN) January 24, 2026
Let’s get into three positives and three negatives from tonight!
First up: what an overtime period! Just high-octane, chaotic, extremely fun extra hockey — and honestly, the Blackhawks were objectively the better team. As mentioned earlier, Chicago got better as the game went on, and they carried that momentum straight into overtime with a level of swagger we really haven’t seen much lately this season. It might have been the most unrestrained the Blackhawks have looked in an extended stretch all year (even if it was a short one), and it was genuinely entertaining to watch. They finished OT with seven total attempts — already a high number for regular-season overtime — compared to just two for the Lightning, along with four shots on goal, all of which were scoring chances and three of which were high-danger.
Soooo close pic.twitter.com/R7Nn98wdP6 https://t.co/9xb36AwxP9
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 24, 2026
Next, I’ve focused a lot on the kids in recent positive recaps, but the most noticeable Blackhawk to me tonight was Ilya Mikheyev. He finished with only two attempts, both on goal and both scoring chances, but one of those was the excellent — and best — opportunity from either team, clipped above. Mikheyev started the game with Connor Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi, and while that experiment lasted just 4:13 and was fairly dominated by the Lightning, it’s understandable why Jeff Blashill rewarded Mikheyev early with that chance, as he’s been one of the most well-rounded players on the Blackhawks recently. Mikheyev kind of reminds me of a combination of Michael Frolik and Marcus Kruger: a speed-first, north-south forward who thrives in transition and on the forecheck, most effective when using his skating to pressure defenders, create turnovers, and generate chances off the rush, even if his finishing touch is inconsistent — and of course, he’s excellent on the penalty kill. He’s on pace to put up close to 30 points again this season, which isn’t a ton, but it’s a solid contribution from a guy who predominantly plays in a defensive role. It’ll be interesting to see what the Blackhawks do with Mikheyev as they approach the trade-dealine.
Just to note, Mikheyev apparently did have a scare during the game that made the team doctor’s concerned enough to get an X-ray taken, but he is apparently fine.
Mikheyev went to the X-ray room following the game but he’s fine. Blashill: “I just talked to the docs. Nothing there.”
— Tracey Myers (@Tramyers_NHL) January 24, 2026
Obviously, we have to give a shoutout to Soderblom as one of the major positives from this game. While the team in front of him deserves plenty of credit for their defensive work, he still ended up facing 31 shots on goal, including several high-danger chances that he turned away — especially in key moments, like the final seconds of multiple periods. He weathered some of Tampa’s best looks in the first period, and that stability clearly helped the Blackhawks build confidence as the game went on. Although Soderblom has improved in the shootout since his first season, it wasn’t exactly his strongest performance there tonight. Still, it’s hard to get too upset when he was the backbone of getting the game to the shootout in the first place. Soderblom finished with 2.47 goals saved above expected, while Andrei Vasilevskiy checked in at 1.09 — and 0.58 of that came in overtime, so over the majority of the game, Söderblom was simply the better goaltender.
“We owe a lot of credit to [Soderblom]. I thought he was unbelievable. I don’t think that game goes overtime without him playing the way he did.”
Ryan Greene on the play of Arvid Soderblom in Friday’s shootout loss.
— Vinnie Parise (@VinnieParise) January 24, 2026
Arvid makes a big stop late in the period pic.twitter.com/1Y6tYABrC4
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 24, 2026
For the first negative, Bedard struggled tonight to get anything really going, which will happen sometimes and is a credit to the Lightning, but this was still one of his most ineffective games of the season. He managed just one shot attempt and zero shots on goal — only the fourth time he’s been held to that little on both counts — and that lone attempt wasn’t even considered a scoring chance despite playing 21:36 overall and 4:24 on the power play. The Lightning’s excellent checking line centered by Yanni Gourde was his main matchup tonight, so a lot of this shutdown is due to Tampa just being extremely good defensively — and his lines were the most impacted by the shuffling — but Bedard has shown he can break through against other strong lines, so it was still a little disappointing he couldn’t do it here. It’s not a major issue, but it does underline how important it is for the Blackhawks to have Bedard at his best if they’re going to generate any real offensive punch.
Next, this wasn’t a bad game from Artyom Levshunov overall — mostly just so-so — but my biggest nitpick right now is that he doesn’t need to be on the top power-play unit. Blashill seems willing to let him play through his issues, which is fine mostly, but he hasn’t been very effective there all season so maybe a different strategy for a few games wouldn’t hurt. Occasionally we’ll get a moment that makes us go “wow,” but those are few and far between; his shot and pass selection has been especially poor lately on the power play, with too much deferment to Bedard, and he’s had major issues at the blue line that have bitten the Blackhawks. The power play almost seems to score in spite of him, even. Levshunov had been playing with a ton of offensive confidence at 5-on-5 for much of December and early January — and he had a moment or two tonight too — but that hasn’t carried over to the man advantage, so my recommendation is to move Levshunov to the second unit and see if he can regain that boost in a lower-stakes situation. Either way, his improvement over this season has been obvious, so this is just a mild down period/issue for the kid.
Finally, Alex Vlasic and Louis Crevier have been the de facto top pairing lately and have generally done very well in the role, but tonight they got absolutely caved in. The Blackhawks controlled just 30.3 percent of shot attempts and a staggering 7.32 percent (!!) of expected goals when the young duo were on the ice together. That’s the lowest expected-goals share for a defensive pairing this season, and it shows that even players on a strong run can still be overwhelmed by some of the NHL’s best talent and there’s still room for these young players to grow. Vlasic was stronger defensively overall, but most of that impact came during his 4:21 on the penalty kill; Crevier, meanwhile, had his lack of speed exposed more than usual, though his shootout goal was a thing of beauty.
And just for fun, here are the Frank Nazar and Louis Crevier (!) shootout goals:
Nazar SCORES to keep the Hawks alive pic.twitter.com/y2dAoafyLd
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 24, 2026
Crevier goes forehand backhand on Vasy 🤯 pic.twitter.com/kWFgLs1RVo
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 24, 2026
Game Charts
Three Stars
Nikita Kucherov (TBL) — 1 goal
Arvid Soderblom (CHI) — .968 save percentage, 2.47 goals saved above expected
Brandon Hagel (TBL) — 1 assist
What’s Next
The Blackhawks take on the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions Florida Panthers at the United Center Sunday at 6 p.m.