TAMPA, Fla. _ Different building. Same embarrassment.
A month after waltzing into the United Center and destroying the Blackhawks with a record-setting performance, the Lightning delivered another dominant effort in a 4-2 victory over the Hawks on Friday night at Amalie Arena.
It was the eighth straight road loss for the Hawks, who dropped to 8-10-5.
The outcome wasn't a surprise, and perhaps the dominance wasn't either. But it was somewhat shocking to discover the Hawks couldn't motivate themselves to play better after the Lightning set an NHL record with 33 shots on goal in one period en route to their 6-3 victory last month in Chicago.
"We were pretty embarrassed after the effort we had in our building," Toews admitted before Friday night's rematch.
That didn't seem to matter as Tyler Johnson scored 29 seconds into the game and added his second goal seven minutes later. Brayden Point and Ryan Callahan also scored in the first period for the Lightning. Nikita Kucherov assisted on each of the Lightning's first three goals.
These weren't fluke goals that came as a result of lucky bounces or on power plays. All four were at even strength, often on brilliant passes that left the Hawks looking confused.
As bad as it was for the Hawks to see pucks flying into their net at an alarming rate during the first period, the worst moment may have come when the Hawks' Alexandre Fortin had a clean breakaway from just inside the red line.
Fortin skated in, prepared for his shot and ... his stick snapped in half. The puck slowly and harmlessly veered to the right of the net.
Want a little more disheartening news? The Lightning did all their early damage in the first against the Hawks' top line. Toews, Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane were on the ice for each of the Lightning's first three goals and were a minus-3 for the period.
At the end of the first, the Lightning held a 4-1 lead and a 19-11 advantage in shots on goal.
Even though the Hawks were playing one of the NHL's best teams _ the Lightning improved to 16-6-1 with the victory _ this was another rough game. For the second straight contest, they weren't ready when the official dropped the puck to start game.
On Wednesday against the Capitals, they allowed a goal 54 seconds in and trailed 2-0 before the 8-minute mark. They made a game of it but couldn't recover.
It was a similar story against the Lightning. Artem Anisimov scored his third goal of the season to make it 3-1 at the 8:50 mark of the first period, and Jonathan Toews made it 4-2 with 1:11 left in the second.
The Hawks tightened their defense, found their legs and put on a lot of pressure during the third period. They even came back to top the Lightning 30-29 in shots on goal by the time it was all over.
But just as they couldn't recover after their terrible start against the Capitals, the Hawks once again were done in by an inability to get out of the gate.
Different building. Same result.
