Look, when Andrei Vasilevskiy went down with a broken foot, most people would have expected a bit of a downturn in the crease.
Underestimating Louie Domingue? Guilty as charged.
Dominique’s save percentage won’t woo the masses, but he’s made enough key saves enough times in between the pipes for the Lightning that he’s won four of six starts since Vasilevskiy went down on Nov. 10.
That’s all he’s really been asked to do given the rate the Lightning put pucks past opposition goalies.
Domingue was stellar in Friday’s 4-2 win for the Lightning against the Chicago Blackhawks on NBCSN, stopping 30-of-32 for his seventh win of the season.
Tampa had three goals in the first 10:05 of the opening frame on Friday against Chicago, helped on each one of them by an assist from Nikita Kucherov.
Tyler Johnson fired home back-to-back markers and Brayden Point notched his 15th of the season before the Blackhawks could even get into the game.
Point finished with a goal and an assist in the game and is now on 28 points, two back of Kucherov for the team lead.
Point would have eclipsed Kucherov if not for the latter’s continued dominance on the scoresheet. No. 86’s white-hot run extended with his hat trick of apples. He now has two goals and 10 helpers in a five-game point streak.
Artem Anisimov injected a bit of life into Chicago just 1:05 later, but the Lightning would respond through Ryan Callahan just before the 15-minute mark to regain the three-goal cushion.
Callahan’s goal was especially filthy, as you can see here:
Jonathan Toews, who is on a bit of a tear recently, made it 4-2 with his 11th goal of the season, extending his own point streak to five games.
He’s now up to 20 points in 23 games so far and is one pace to hit the 60-point mark for the first time in four years.
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Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck