Red Wings top Lightning in rematch at Joe Louis Arena

Photos by Michael Caples/MiHockey

Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey
Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT – In a battle of two undefeated teams and a pair that waged seven-game war in the opening round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a tightly-checked game could’ve been expected.

And though it’s only Game 2 of the regular season, the Red Wings got a little retribution against their divisional foe Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Led by Henrik Zetterberg’s game-winner and Jimmy Howard’s 20-save performance, the Red Wings topped the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-1. Gustav Nyquist scored his first goal of the season, Kyle Quincey added an empty-netter and Zetterberg added an assist to extend his league-leading point total to seven through three games. Detroit improved to 3-0 while handing Tampa Bay its first loss in four games.

“I thought, overall, as a group, we managed the puck pretty well,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We had some turnovers, but they were isolated a little bit. I was real happy with the way we played.”

Dylan Larkin set up Zetterberg’s third-period goal, giving him four points in the opening three games. The line of Abdelkader, Larkin and Zetterberg has combined for seven goals and nine assists thus far.

“They seem to have some pretty good chemistry,” Blashill said. “It’s a pretty good mix of speed, size and skill and offensive smarts. They’ve obviously been real productive, so it’s good for us.”

The first 50 minutes of the contest were about as even as you would expect from two well-coached, deep lineups, with nothing going either way.

But late in the second period, Abdelkader injected some life into the building with a huge open-ice hit on Alex Killorn, as the crowd broke out into chants of “AB-BY.”

“It sometimes starts with a shift and then draw a penalty and the powerplay gets going, the crowd gets going and go from there,” Abdelkader said. “Maybe that shift before, and then the powerplay goal, I think we took over the rest of the way.”

With Matt Carle in the box for tripping Nyquist at 17:52 of the second stanza, Nyquist made the Bolts pay. Taking a pass at the right circle, Nyquist leaned in and unleashed a wicked wrister past Bishop to give the Red Wings the game-opening goal, his first of the young season.

“Big powerplay goal, good shot by (Nyquist) there, great net presence by (Abdelkader),” Blashill said.

After the goal was initially credited to Abdelkader, he joked that the officials must already be accustomed to giving him goals considering his hot start to the season.

The Red Wings found themselves in a stretch of penalty trouble shortly after the Nyquist goal and also early in the third period, but Howard and the Detroit penalty-kill stifled the Lightning’s charge.

“I thought our PK was really good, and good at critical moments,” Blashill said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. Special teams can be a little misleading, depending on the timing of the game, and I thought in tonight’s game, the timing was great.”

That gave Detroit a bit of momentum, and at 8:25 of the third period, the Red Wings captain added a crucial insurance goal for his team. From the boards, Larkin fed Zetterberg in the high slot and Zetterberg roofed a wrister on the far side over Bishop for his second goal and league-leading seventh point of the season.

“Hank is our leader out there, it’s great to see him healthy,” Nyquist said. “I think his body feels as good as it has in a long time, and I think it shows out there. He’s strong on the puck, but that’s usual for Hank. He’s our leader. He just does what he does out there and that’s why he’s one of the best players in the world.”

Finishing off a gorgeous tic-tac-toe passing play in the Detroit zone, Ryan Callahan blasted home a one-timer to end Jimmy Howard’s shutout streak at 111:03, dating back to the season-opening 4-0 victory over Toronto.

But that was as close as Tampa would get, as Quincey added an empty-netter with just under two minutes to play to cap off the 3-1 final and hand Tampa its first loss of the season.

“We’re still working things out here,” Zetterberg said. “There’s been some tight games, but obviously it’s nice to get three wins, but it’s a long season. We have a good two days here now and then back-to-back again, so it’s two tough games in a week.”