Lightning smash Red Wings, winning streak 4-1

Steven Stamkos #91 of the Tampa Bay Lightning celebrates a goal with teammates against the Detroit Red Wings during the second period at Amalie Arena on February 15, 2018 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Tampa Bay Lightning continued to keep the Red Wings at bay inside Amalie Arena Thursday night. Nikita Kucherov had a goal and four points on the night that saw his team win 4-1 over Detroit snapping their two game winning streak. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 38 saves to end Tampa’s short slide.

With a two-game winning streak both at home and on the road, the Red Wings hope to make something of their face-off against the Lightning where they stand 0-9-1 in their last ten meetings. Detroit stood outside contention for a playoff spot while the Lightning had a lot to fight for but lost their last pair of matches against Atlantic Division teams. With Detroit’s history but willingness to get on the right foot, they would have to be at their best returning back home.

They handed the Red Wings a power play early on in the period but put together good coverage in their zone sending the puck out of play a number of times. Detroit squandered their time on the man advantage and got caught sleeping during a Tampa transition to offense. It was at 3:55 that Lightning captain Steven Stamkos fired a shot to the left of Howard for his 22^nd of the season. Detroit was struggling to make something happen with a lot of slapping of sticks but no good movement of the puck.

The Lightning got another chance to increase the score with Anthony Mantha getting caught for holding while attempting a breakaway. They nearly had a chance with Kucherov mishandling an opportunity where the net was open again. Detroit covered themselves but couldn’t do it as Tampa’s special teams worked to give the Russian his 31^st tying Evgeny Malkin for second most in the league.

While it took a toll for Detroit on the scoreboard, they remained tenacious with shots to the net where Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all their scoring chances through 16 minutes. Before he and the Lightning could finish the period flawlessly, they gave Detroit a chance with 1:17 to make something happen on their second power play. Detroit couldn’t find an open shot at Vasilevskiy that ended more than half their advantage while still down two goals after 20 minutes.

Detroit came into the second unable to convert what was left of their man advantage. They soon saw Tampa increase their shots in the Detroit end to pressure Howard. He knew that giving up any more goals would result in his exit and proved his worth with a one on one that saw the puck fired at his center body making the stop on Kucherov. He stayed on lock with glove saves along with his reaction timing that kept Tampa quiet. Detroit had a lot going at the Lightning netminder but getting nothing behind him was becoming a concern as time wound down in the period.

Another bad penalty from the Red Wings gave the Lightning another shot at scoring a goal which they made happen quickly. A three man play slid the puck with speed to give Stamkos his second of the night. Detroit got another power play and made something of it with Tomas Tatar earning credit to end Vasilevskiy’s shutout. With Tyler Bertuzzi and Justin Abdelkader putting together a huge block in front of the net, Tatar earned his 15^th to put the Red Wings down by two after 40.

Tampa regained their three-goal margin with a Detroit turnover that resulted in Alex Killorn scoring his 11^th with Kucherov getting his fourth point of the game 95 seconds into the third period. The Lightning’s fourth goal was the one that took the air completely out of the Red Wings before two minutes could elapse. While they tried to get another on Vasilevskiy his support staff helped out to clear the threat away when he wasn’t making the stops himself. The period began to close in on the end of Detroit’s winning streak where they outshot Tampa 11-7 and 39-32 overall but couldn’t overcome the massive lead Tampa created.

With the game moving swiftly for their Atlantic Division rivals, the Red Wings would sweep off the thought of the loss and move north to Nashville to face the Predators Saturday night.