The Tampa Bay Lightning finally beat a team not named the Toronto Maple Leafs. A 24-save performance from Andrei Vasilevskiy and two-goal efforts by Jake Guentzel and Gage Goncalves led the Lightning to a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. Nikita Kucherov had a pair of assists to reach 1,100 points in his career. J.T. Compher had the lone goal for the Red Wings while John Gibson stopped 25-of-28 in the losing effort.
There were a couple of line-up changes as Darren Raddysh returned to action and Scott Sabourin slotted in while Conor Geekie had the night off.
First Period:
The Lightning haven’t had a first ten minutes of a game like that in quite some time. They were first on pucks and pushing the Detroit Red Wings back from the blue line. That led to quite a bit of zone time and some scoring chances (13 overall). Unfortunately, they didn’t have much to show for their effort in the first half of the period and beyond.
Did they pass up a few opportunities to shoot? Yes, they did. On more than one occasion they had the puck in the slot and chose to dish it off (looking at you Nikita Kucherov). They also saw 11 of their first period shots blocked and another 7 missed the target. Detroit deserves a little credit as they were staunch on defense when they needed to be, thwarting two back-post opportunities by tying up the Lightning players.
Detroit did have some chances of their own, and a hooking penalty by Nikita Kucherov late in the period gave them a chance with the extra skater. It was hard to tell that the Bolts penalty kill has been a mess of late as Tampa Bay allowed just one shot attempt over the two minutes.
The Red Wings gifted the Lightning a late power play and it took a nice pad save by John Gibson on a deflected shot from Victor Hedman to keep the game scoreless.
Second Period
Gibson kept Hedman off the board, as well as Jake Guentzel, on the power play in the first period, but that wouldn’t be the case as the advantage carried over into the second period. Nikita Kucherov had a clean entry into the zone and a little shoulder shimmy gave him a lane to feed the puck to Guentzel. Jake didn’t look to make an extra pass, instead snapped a low shot that beat Gibson cleanly.
Jake Guentzel [28] (Nikita Kucherov, Corey Perry) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning
For the next few minutes, the Lightning were pressing, but couldn’t increase their lead. Then they got caught in a bit of a line mismatch. The Girgensons’ line was out against Detroit’s top line, and they were pinned in their own zone for a while. A long while. Like an absurdly long while. Almost 25% of the period. It’s not often that a defenseman logs a four-minute 5v5 shift, but Darren Raddysh can add that to his resume.
Raddysh was out there for 4:07, Ryan McDonagh had a 3:52 shift, Corey Perry was at 3:00, Zemgus Girgensons 3:14, and Scott Sabourin had an almost relaxing 2:34 of ice time. Did the Red Wings get some shots off with all of that zone time? Yes, but most of them were from distance. The Bolts may have struggled to clear the puck, but they did keep the front of the net clear and Vasilevskiy was able to see the shots clearly.
Detroit didn’t score, but they definitely took control of the game as the Bolts reverted back to some of the foibles that have been their downfall of late. Turnovers, bad clears, allowing Patrick Kane some open ice, all of that happened, but it was to no avail for the visitors because Andrei Vasilevskiy was back on his game.
Detroit was credited with 17 scoring chances and 13 shots against, posting a 1.48 xGF. Their actual goals for – zero. Vasilevskiy was the difference in the period, but his teammates did make sure his crease was clean and rebounds were few and far between.
The Bolts weathered the storm and started to push back with five minutes to go in the period. It looked like they might have doubled their lead at the 4:45 mark as the puck popped over a fallen Gibson and into the net. Unfortunately for the Bolts the reason Gibson was prone on the ice is because he made contact with Corey Perry. The officials immediately waived the goal off due to goaltender interference. Replays show that the contract was in the crease (although just barely).
Despite it getting waved off, it did seem to spark Tampa Bay a little and they finished the period strong. Yanni Gourde’s line had a nice sustained shift and Gibson’s windmill glove save on Gourde’s shot was his best of the night to that point.
Third Period
The Lightning try so hard for slam dunk goals that sometimes they forget the simplistic way to score – just shoot the puck at the net. A nice forechecking shift by the Point line led to Point spinning a shot on net from distance. It wasn’t a quality shot and it was probably going wide of the net but it hit Ben Chiarot’s leg. Even then it probably would have been stopped by Gibson’s pad, but it glanced off the top of Gage Goncalves’ skate and just over the pad to make it 2-0.
Gage Goncalves [9] (Brayden Point) 2-1 Lightning
So, the goal broke the Red Wing’s spirit and the Lightning coasted to victory, right? Right? Well, not really. Despite carrying the play for much of the first part of the period, a bad clear led to a little zone time for Detroit. Patrick Kane fed the puck to Alex DeBrincat, who had charged off the bench and ripped a shot on net. J.J. Moser pushed J.T. Compher out from the front of the net, but Compher’s stick trailed behind him and DeBrincat’s shot ticked off it to make it 2-1.
J.T. Compher [9] (Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane) 2-1 Lightning
During their struggles, the Lightning have had their mistakes put into the net and then compounded. One goal has led to two goals, and taken them out of their game. That was not the case on Thursday. Despite the narrowing of their lead, Tampa Bay was back to attacking the Detroit zone. Did they score right away? No, but they kept the puck off the Red Wings’ sticks. Detroit only had seven shots all period and just two high-danger chances.
That’s the type of third period they were putting up during the winning streak. After protecting the lead, they finally got around to extending the lead. Once again it was Gage Goncalves getting his big ol’ body in the way. Parked in front of the net another shot from Brayden Point ricocheted off of Proper Age Gage and into the net.
Gage Goncalves [10] (Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov) 3-1 Lightning
Jake Guentzel added his second of the night on the empty net and the Lightning had their victory.
Jake Guentzel [29] (Anthony Cirelli) Empty Net, 4-1 Lightning
Pretty Colors
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-03-12 #GoBolts
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) March 12, 2026 at 9:46 PM
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