The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 at Amalie Arena in Tampa Friday night.
In an entertaining, tight and well-played game, it was the Lightning coming up big in the third period to make the difference.
After a scoreless first, Anton Stralman got the Bolts on the board at 1:22 of the second period, getting assists from Victor Hedman and Ondrej Palat.
Detroit cashed in on what has been a red-hot power play lately at 6:57 on an unassisted goal from Tomas Tatar.
The Lightning regained the lead on the eventual game winner at 10:31 of the third when Alex Killorn scored on assists from Hedman and Jonathan Drouin.
Lightning goalie Ben Bishop was effective all night, going on to stop 30 of the 31 shots he faced, although he only faced seven in the final period thanks to a solid defensive effort in front of him.
Steven Stamkos capped things off on an unassisted empty netter with :32 remaining, his 40th goal of the season.
The homestand continues Sunday afternoon against another Atlantic Division rival, the Boston Bruins
Game note:
- The Lightning are 3-0 against the Red Wings and the two teams will meet once more in the regular season, next Saturday afternoon in Detroit
- Palat returned to the lineup after missing three games due to a foot injury sustained blocking a shot against the Montreal Canadiens.
- Mike Angelidis was was returned to Syracuse to make room on the roster for P
- Today is Valtteri Filppula’s 31st birthday
- Stamkos has now registered at least 40 goals four times in his career.
- The Lightning honored Wayne Johnson as the 36th Lightning Community Hero of the season during the first period of tonight’s game. Johnson, who received a $50,000 donation from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes program, will donate the money to the YMCA and New Life Tabernacle. For 25 years, Johnson has been an advocate for people in underprivileged situations and those who have experienced domestic violence. While in college, he had to cope with the death of his roommate due to a domestic dispute. This situation led him on the journey to his current vocation. Johnson has served as an educator speaking to the youth on dating violence. He also serves at the Senior Program Director for the YMCA’s Teen Achiever’s Program working with over 750 at risk youth in the Tampa Bay region. Tonight’s Lightning Community Hero is also a retired member of the United Sates military serving eight years in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Joint Endeavor. He received the Army Achievement Medal, National Service Defense Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal with three Bronze Stars, Kuwait Liberation Medal and the NATO Medal.
