Lightning strikes against Chicago Blackhawks

When the Chicago Blackhawks take a lead into the third period, you can almost take it to the bank that they are not going to lose.

The veteran leaders know how to play while ahead, and opponents simply can't figure out a way come back.

Until Tuesday night that is, when Tampa Bay scored three times in just less than four minutes in the final period and went on to claim a 5-2 victory at the United Center. Since the start of the 2014-15 campaign, the Hawks are now 78-1-5 when leading after two periods.

"We can't be letting games like that slip away," said Jonathan Toews, who opened the scoring at 10:23 of the first period off a nice feed from Richard Panik.

Duncan Keith scored the Hawks' second goal at 1:26 of the second, but Tampa Bay knotted things up when Nikita Nesterov beat Corey Crawford at 2:47 of the third. Shortly thereafter, the Lightning put the hammer down with back-to-back goals by Tyler Johnson at 6:14 and 6:44.

"We kind of sucked the life out of the building a little bit," said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper, whose team won for just the third time in 11 games.

Johnson scored the game-winner by screaming into the offensive zone, taking a pass from Alex Killorn and sending a shot over Crawford's right shoulder. Trevor van Riemsdkyk and Brian Campbell were the last lines of defense, but neither could recover in time to hold off Johnson's rush.

"I could have had a little better gap," van Riemsdyk said. "Killorn cut to the middle (and) you don't want to let him shoot it from there, so you kind of lean in with a stick.

"Kind of crisscrossed (at that point). Just poor communication, and Johnson's got a good shot from there. We can't give that up."

Said Hawks coach Joel Quenneville: "I didn't like that goal."

A huge blow for the Hawks came when the puck hit the left post after Andrei Vasilevskiy deflected Nick Schmaltz's blast with his glove at 5:15 of the third period. Had that shot found its mark, the Hawks would have led 3-2.

Vasilevskiy was strong all night with 34 saves, many of which easily could have ended up as goals.

"(He) gave us a lot of life," Cooper said. "He made us a little taller on the bench and kept us in position to be able to come back like we did, and that's what you need from your goalie."

On the bright side for the Hawks, Toews' hot streak continued as he scored in back-to-back games for the first time since Nov. 6.

"The puck just seemed to be coming to me," said Toews, who has 9 goals. "It was nice to … make plays and be in on a couple goals.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't good enough defensively tonight. I still want to keep playing the way I have the last couple games."

The Hawks' final game before the all-star break is at home against Winnipeg on Thursday. After that, the Hawks play eight of the next nine on the road, their only home game coming against the Oilers on Feb. 18.

"It would have been nice to get the win tonight, but we've got a big game here before the all-star break," Patrick Kane said. "So make sure our mind's in the right place, make sure we're focused, make sure we come out and have a good effort against Winnipeg, and go into the break feeling good about ourselves."