TAMPA, Fla. — Coming off one of their poorest games of the season in Thursday’s loss to the Penguins, the Lightning needed a turnaround. And they needed one quick.
Friday night’s game against Detroit gave them that opportunity and saw a much improved and active Tampa Bay squad en route to a 3-1 win at Amalie Arena.
The scoreless first period was split evenly between the teams. The Lightning led in shots on goal (10-8), hits (12-6) and blocked shots (6-3), creating a much stronger start than the one they had in a 5-1 loss to Pittsburgh.
Brayden Point opened the scoring on an early power-play goal in the second period.
Nikita Kucherov battled against the boards for puck possession before escaping and shuffling off a backhanded pass to Victor Hedman, who took the puck to the blueline. The defenseman fired a rocket from the back of the ice toward the net and Point tipped it past goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic for the 1-0 lead.
The momentum didn’t last long, however, as Detroit tied it less than seven minutes later.
Moritz Seider took a shot toward Lightning goaltender Brian Elliott, who made the initial save but lost control of the puck as he tried to sit on it in the crease. Elliott’s back pads shoved the puck deeper into the blue paint toward the goal line, and the Red Wings’ Robby Fabbri pushed it into net with 6:55 remaining in the second period.
The second period was one of the Lightning’s best of the season. They outshot the Red Wings 16-0 through the first 11 minutes.
The Lightning (36-12-6) and Red Wings remained tied through the first half of the third period until Detroit’s Plus Suter was called for high sticking on Kucherov. The ensuing power play led to the eventual winning goal from Mikhail Sergachev with four seconds remaining on the man advantage.
Steve Stamkos scored an empty-netter in the final seconds.
The Lightning logged 38 shots on goal in the win, with major contributions from Ryan McDonagh, Sergachev and Hedman, who all logged at least five shots on goal.
Elliott made his first start since Feb. 11 against Arizona (a 4-3 win) and had 22 saves.
