Lightning Drop Fourth Straight with Loss to Chicago

Mike Smith
Oct 23, 2025
3 min read

By Mike Smith | Thunderstruck Sports

Ryan Donato scored twice and Frank Nazar added a goal as the Chicago Blackhawks downed the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday night, 3-2. The loss was the fourth straight for the Bolts, who continue to struggle to find a path to victory early in the NHL season.

Kucherov shooting on Knight — Goalie Spencer Knight stops a Nikita Kucherov shot as the Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-2, Thursday night. Photo Credit: Alyssa Shimko | Thunderstruck Sports

The Lightning are off to their worst start since 2008.

After several days off to work on improving their fortune, the Lightning started aggressively to open the game. Tampa Bay outshot the Blackhawks, 22-13, in the first two periods. Chicago goalie Spencer Knight kept Chicago in the game with several outstanding plays against the Lightning offense.

Chicago would open the scoring on a power play goal from Frank Nazar. After an interference call on Emil Lilleberg, Tyler Bertuzzi found Nazar in the slot moments later. With a quick snap of the wrist, Nazar put the Blackhawks up and stifled the Lightning's momentum for the remainder of the period.

Bolts Start to Find a Rhythm

Held scoreless in the first period, Tampa Bay came out in the second period and tied the game with a Jake Guentzel goal seven minutes in. Guentzel fed a pass to Nikita Kucherov, and Knight made a pad save on the ensuing shot. Kucherov scooped up his own rebound and found Ryan McDonagh at the blue line. Guentzel tipped in McDonagh's slapshot for the equalizer.

Donato would pick up his first goal of the night midway through the second period. Lukas Reichel got enough of a McDonagh pass in the Bolts' offensive zone to tip it to Donato, who was waiting at the blue line. Donato would then go down the ice to beat Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to retake the lead for Chicago.

The Lightning remained undeterred. McDonagh would score with less than a minute remaining in the period. After feeding a pass to Kucherov at the Chicago blue line, McDonagh raced down to the slot where Kucherov fed him a return pass through three Blawkhawk players.

Momentum once again shifted to the home team.

Blackhawks Capitalize on Lightning Errors

Tampa Bay had to overcome eight penalty minutes, including a double-minor penalty for high-sticking to Yanni Gorde on Chicago phenom Conor Bedard, in the third period to stay even with the Blackhawks. The sloppy penalties kept Tampa Bay from focusing on its offensive game as the team would have liked. A point of emphasis not lost on Lighting head coach Jon Cooper.

"I liked a lot about our game," Cooper said afterward. "I didn't like the penalties we took. I thought we took some careless penalties that put us in a little bit of peril in the third."

The Bolts survived the long stretch of penalty kill time. However, they could not survive the final minute of the game. Kucherov turned over the puck in the Lightning's offensive zone as Teuvo Teravainen scooped up the puck and got it to Nazar. Vasilevskiy initially saved Nazar's shot, but Donato was in position to put the rebound in the back of the net for the game-winner.

"I didn't like our last minute, and I didn't like the result," Cooper lamented. "Everything else, there was a ton of positives to take out of the game."

"Unfortunately, it is a results-oriented game and we didn't get the result. We are not making a ton of mistakes, but when we are, we're getting burned."

Cooper tried to keep looking on the positive side of things despite the season-opening losing streak. When asked about the team's ability to overcome adversity in the past and if they could do it again, the winningest coach in franchise history was poignant.

"Because you've done it before, it doesn't mean you'll do it again," Cooper said. "You have to understand what it took and what it takes to do it again."

Three Stars of the Game

Ryan Donato, Chicago. Two goals, including the game-winner.

Ryan McDonagh, Tampa Bay. A goal and an assist for two points to keep the Lightning on pace with the Blackhawks.
Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay. Two assists, although he fell short of scoring his 1,00th point tonight. He did come close with a shot in the third period that hit underneath the crossbar and bounced out before crossing the goal line.