Red Wings record season’s first win over Lightning
By Stefan Kubus –
DETROIT – Entering Sunday’s tilt against Tampa Bay, Detroit was 0-4 in the season series against a Lightning team who hadn’t lost in regulation in its past 11 contests.
But there’s no better time to correct old mistakes than when it counts most: during the hunt for a playoff spot.
Detroit defeated Tampa Bay 3-2 Sunday at Joe Louis Arena, giving the team 84 points on the season to take over the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Joakim Andersson, David Legwand and Gustav Nyquist scored for the Red Wings, and backup netminder Jonas Gustavsson made 26 saves to give Detroit back-to-back wins against Atlantic Division teams.
“Especially when you drop the first two of the week, you want to end the week on a good note and we really did,” Nyquist said.
The Red Wings also managed to hold a potent power play – featuring the likes of Steven Stamkos, Ryan Callahan and Victor Hedman – off the board four times.
“We battled real hard, they blocked shots and that’s what the PK is all about,” Gustavsson said. “You’ve got to work hard, but you’ve got to work hard following your game plan. Otherwise, you’re just going to run around out there.”
In the first period, Filppula jumped on a loose puck that Detroit defenseman Brendan Smith couldn’t handle just inside the Detroit zone and buried his 25th of the season with 11:20 remaining. That gave the Lightning the 1-0 lead and also extended the former Red Wings forward’s point streak to 12 games.
Andersson responded just minutes later, flipping a rebound home on the backhand up and over Bishop to knot the game up at one aside with 8:52 remaining in the opening period.
Detroit then took a 2-1 lead on a goal by none other than the red-hot Nyquist. But what a goal it was.
Legwand set up Nyquist for a breakaway with just over four minutes remaining in the period. Coming down the middle, Nyquist had Lightning defenseman Matt Carle draped all over him, drew a penalty, but stayed with it after passing the goal line without getting a shot off. He turned and wrapped the puck along the ice in the net in what could easily be a goal-of-the-year candidate.
“I lost the puck a little bit and it went behind the goal line,” Nyquist said of his goal. “I was hoping the goalie was still out of the net on the other side so I just tried to spin it and get it on net as fast as possible, and it was nice to see it go in.”
It looked like nobody would score in the middle period, but with 3:24 left in it and while on the PP, Franzen threw a soft shot on goal and Legwand tipped it home upstairs over Bishop to send Detroit to the locker room up 3-1 after 40 minutes.
Tampa Bay defenseman Sami Salo’s blast from the point beat Gustavsson to pull Tampa Bay to within one with 4:29 remaining in the third period, but it didn’t make a difference as Detroit held on for the win.
“We’ve got to find a way to win some games here to get in,” Nyquist said. “We’ve got Washington breathing down our necks, Columbus is right with us here and Toronto is in the mix, too. Everyone’s going to be playing for their playoff lives here and it’s a good thing we have it in our own hands at least.”
Notes: With his 411th win behind the Red Wings bench, Detroit head coach Mike Babcock passed Red Wings great Scotty Bowman for second place all-time in Detroit history. Two more wins would tie him with legend Jack Adams – for which the NHL’s coach of the year trophy is named – for first all-time and three would make him the winningest coach in Red Wings history… After the game, Babcock called Scotty “the greatest coach of all-time in our business.”