To give the Tampa Bay Lightning the merest of credit for the first two periods, the one goal they scored was an extremely good-looking goal. Victor Hedman finished off a pretty passing play to give the Bolts the lead at the 8:45 mark of the first period.
Victor Hedman (Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point) 1-0 Lightning
Unless you’re a fan of goalies, that’s the lone highlight for the Bolts. Andrei Vasilevskiy was outstanding in net as he made 33 saves on 35 shots, but the offense was left wanting for most of the first 40 minutes due to a copious amount of turnovers by the Lightning. Their struggles to exit their zone made the night way too easy for the Detroit Red Wings (to paraphrase Coach Cooper after the game) and a spirited, but ultimately fruitless effort in the third period wasn’t enough as the Lightning lost 2-1 to the Detroit Red Wings.
Both of the Red Wings goals came on turnovers well away from the Lightning net, but for a majority of the middle of the game (from Hedman’s goal until the start of the third period) Tampa Bay was pinned in their own zone due to their own miscues.
It did appear they would escape the first period without penalty as time was winding down when they had it in the Detroit zone. However, a turnover led to a transition rush by the Red Wings. Brayden Point actually did a really good job of hustling back to shut Dylan Larkin off, but the Detroit captain was able to spin the puck to Lucas Raymond. Vasy stopped the initial shot, but his attempt to rotate and clear the puck out of the crease as it headed to the goal line ended up knocking the puck into the net to tie the game.
Lucas Raymond (Dylan Larkin, David Perron) 1-1
In the opening frame, the Lightning could only muster one high-danger chance and two scoring chances. The second period would see them double the scoring chances, but again have just a single chance loaded with danger. Meanwhile, aided by back-to-back power plays, the Red Wings generated 14 scoring chances and 6 high-danger chances in the middle 20 minutes. Oh yeah, they also scored after one of the Lightning’s rare sojourns into the offensive zone.
It wasn’t just that Anthony Cirelli turned the puck over in the offensive zone. It was that he did it as the Lightning were completing a line change and one defenseman (Emil Lilleberg) had driven into the slot, and the other (Nick Perbix) was split wide. Cirelli’s ill-advised pass through the center of the ice hit J.T. Compher’s skate deflected to Daniel Sprong, who was all alone in the middle of the neutral zone. Sprong broke in alone and beat Vasilevskiy cleanly to give the home team the lead.
Daniel Sprong (J.T. Compher) 2-1 Red Wings
From that point on the Lightning kind of regained their footing a bit, and came out with shots ablazin’ in the third period. After mustering just 10 shots through two periods on Alex Lyon, they fired 19 on him in the final frame. Their only problem was that he stopped all of them to finish with 27 saves on 28 shots. The Bolts came close a few times, including dusting the post on a delayed penalty, but they couldn’t sneak a point out of the game.
They still have a chance to salvage the road trip with a win in Philly on Tuesday, but a disappointing effort against the Red Wings cost them their five-game winning streak and a chance to put a little distance between the two teams in the standings.
