Wounded Lightning goalie Bishop plays ... and gets win

Like a goalie reads a shooter, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper read goalie Ben Bishop before Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Bishop passed the eye test.

"I talked to him," Cooper said. "We're not going to put anybody in a game that is going to be in harm's way of hurting himself. We talked long and hard if he could play tonight, and there wasn't a doubt in his eyes.

"You can read," Cooper said, "when guys are sitting there saying, 'Coach, I'll go for you, or give me the net.' That kid said, 'Give me the net.' And I knew we were going to be OK."

Uncertain what body part, if any, ailed Bishop enough for him to skate hurriedly off the ice twice during the third period of Game 2, the Blackhawks tested the visiting goalie early and often Monday night.

Bishop barely flinched. Or winced.

The Blackhawks tested him 18 times in the first period alone of Game 3 at the United Center. And the big man played big, even if he did appear to be moving his 6-foot-7 frame slower, if not more gingerly, than usual.

"That's happened to him before," Cooper said.

Other than Brad Richards' slap shot, which trickled off Bishop's glove and into the net for a power-play goal, the Lightning goalie stopped every shot in the opening period.

His second-period effort included stacking the pads to stop Antoine Vermette's backhander on a blue-line-in breakaway.

All the while, Lightning backup goalie, 20-year-old Andrei Vasilevskiy sat on the bench, waiting for another possible relief effort, which never came. The rookie had made 5 saves in Game 2.

Bishop wound up stopping 36 shots in a complete-game effort and, unlike Saturday night, he got the win. Tampa Bay won 3-2 on Cedric Paquette's goal with 3:11 left to take a 2-to-1 series lead.

"I thought (Bishop) was excellent," Cooper said, adding that, no, he never considered pulling his goalie.

Brandon Saad's one-timer from between the circles, off a pass from Marian Hossa, beat a helpless Bishop over that same left glove on the Blackhawks' 32nd shot with 15:46 left in the third, only see Ondrej Palat stuff in a rebound for Tampa Bay 13 seconds later.

"I liked our first period," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I thought we had a real good first. (Tampa Bay) had a good second. The third was even. Tough loss."

As for the reason why Bishop couldn't play all 60 minutes of Game 2, both he and Cooper remained evasive following Monday's morning skate.

"I feel like Marshawn Lynch right now," Bishop joked.

And after Game 3, the mystery remained. Was he injured? Ill? Sick to his stomach? All of the above?

"You'll have to wait until whenever this series ends for that," Cooper said with a grin. "Sorry."