The Tampa Bay Lightning (35-29-9) faced a divisional rival in the Detroit Red Wings (29-32-11) tonight as they continued their pursuit for a ticket to the postseason. Having struggled the last few games, the Lightning exploded to beat the Boston Bruins (38-30-6) by a score of 6-3 last night. They’ll need to keep that up, as with only nine games remaining in the season, the hourglass is almost empty. Were the Bolts able to beat the Wings and keep their playoff hopes alive? Let’s recap the action and take a look!
First Period
Right from the start, these two clubs promised us a thriller with back and forth play that left little to be desired. The Lightning would cough up the first opportunity at 4:23 as Ondrej Palat chipped the puck out of his defensive zone for a delay of game. The Tampa Bay penalty kill made easy work of the meager Detroit power play. They were never able to sustain pressure in the offensive zone and gifted a shorthanded rush to Lightning forward Alex Killorn. Lucky for them, he was unable to capitalize on their mistake.
From there, the Lightning did a great job of dictating play in the neutral zone. They were quite stingy and never allowed the Red Wings to formula a dangerous attack. This led to some frustration for the home team and to remedy that Detroit forward Justin Abdelkader tried to get physical with Lightning’s Yanni Gourde. Rough stuff ensued and it would be Tampa Bay rookie Adam Erne fighting Andreas Athanasiou to highlight the scuffle. From there, the game took a more violent turn and each club retreated to the locker room with chins held high.
Second Period
The physicality would carry over into the second as it only took two minutes and thirty-three seconds for another engagement of fisticuffs. The Bolts’ Greg McKegg and Detroit’s Anthony Mantha traded a few shots, but Mantha would get the extra minutes for instigating and taking a few liberties on McKegg while he was on the ice. The Lightning’s power play went to work, but were unable to convert and the attempt came away empty-handed.
First blood would be drawn soon after a Detroit power play as Red Wings’ captain Henrik Zetterberg beat Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy at 8:03. The lead energized Detroit as they pounced on the winded Lightning who had just played a game the night before. Flatfooted and frustrated, the Bolts’ mistakes began to pile up as they gave the Red Wings two key power play opportunities and just seemed a step behind the speedy Detroit forwards. The buzzer sounded and the Lightning ended forty minutes of hockey down by only one goal.
Third Period
With just thirty minutes left to play, the Lightning decided to empty the gas tank. They wedged a way into the Detroit zone and conjured an offensive attack. Their efforts would prove to be fruitful as Palat slid one past Detroit goaltender Petr Mrazek off a Braydon Coburn point shot at 5:53. In a matter of minutes, we had a tie game with neither team wanting to give the other any leverage. Both clubs decided to tighten up the rest of the game, but Detroit took two inopportune penalties to make this one interesting down the stretch of the third. However, the Bolts were unable to make them pay and we headed to overtime.
Overtime
Nikita Kucherov has been a hero for the Tampa Bay Lightning this season. Tonight, his lore only grew, as he was able to deflect a Brayden Point pass into Detroit’s net and win a second of two huge points for his club. With the road to the playoff becoming more and more of a grind, the Lightning now find themselves a point away from the final wild card spot. They’ll need to keep pulling off magical performances like this if they how to make it to the big dance.
When asked about it after the game, Jon Cooper looked like he was just happy to be in the race. He reiterated that you can only focus on one game at a time, but voiced his relief about his team pulling this one out.
“It just feels good to win this game.” – Jon Cooper
Yes it did, Coop. Yes it did.
Three Stars of The Game:
- Nikita Kucherov, GWG, 1 assist
- Henrik Zetterberg, 1 goal
- Ondrej Palat, 1 goal
Next up: Tampa Bay Lightning (36-29-9) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (48-20-6) on Monday night at 7:30pm at Amalie Arena in Tampa.
