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Lightning Down Detroit Red Wings, 6-2
- Updated: March 22, 2016
The Detroit Red Wings keep making it hard on themselves.
With the end of the regular season fast approaching, the Wings are Jekyll-and-Hydeing their way down the stretch. Tuesday night at Amalie Arena, they started slowly, got sloppy, rallied, got into penalty trouble, all adding up to a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“They always come out flying in this building and it’s tough to spot them a few goals right away,” Justin Abdelkader said. “I thought we battled, but then they got that fourth goal, and it kind of put us back on our heels.
“Starts are big in this league. You’ve got to come prepared and ready to go on time. I don’t think it was a terrible first period by us, but we’ve got to make sure we keep goals out of our net and limit our turnovers.”
Coupled with the Flyers picking up a point to tie the Wings at 83 points and Philadelphia having a game in hand on Detroit, the Wings fell out of the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They have nine games left.
“I thought we came out fine, but we talked about not giving up any free chances, and we gave up free chances for two goals,” coach Jeff Blashilll said. “You can’t give up free goals like that.”
The Wings gave up goals early in each period en route to the rout. Blashill replaced Jimmy Howard after three goals, but inserting Petr Mrazek was more about trying for a momentum switch than a reflection on Howard, who got no help from teammates.
“You’re trying what you can to try to get momentum going your way at that point,” Blashill said.
Abdelkader used a power play to chip away and Darren Helm got the Wings within a goal, only to have it all be for naught after three consecutive penalties left the Wings reeling. When Ondrej Palat made it 5-2, it was, as Blashill put it, “a bit of a dagger.”
It was all the more a disappointing performance in light of a huge rally Saturday at Florida. This night, the Wings showed little of the same determination from the start.
Howard faced 15 first-period shots as his teammates gave away passes. Erik Condra scored less than two minutes in, and Vladislav Namestnikov had made it 2-0 before the period was halfway through. The best chances from the Wings saw rookie Anthony Mantha bang a shot off a goalpost and and Tomas Tatar off the cross bar. Ben Bishop only saw seven shots in the first period.
“I thought both teams were playing a little sloppy from the beginning,” Henrik Zetterberg said. “We gave each other some easy chances, but they scored on them, we didn’t.”
When Steven Stamkos sent a shot in off Jonathan Ericsson’s skate 33 seconds into the second period, it spelled the end of Howard’s night.
It took the suddenly resurgent power play to do some damage control, with Abdelkader tapping the puck in from the left side at 8:08 of the second period. That stirred the Wings, who finally generated a sustained attack. Mrazek held up the other end with a stop on Tyler Johnson after he split Detroit’s defense.
Helm used his speed to make it 3-2, but penalty problems thwarted further comeback attempts. Abdelkader joined Mike Green 12 seconds after he went to the box, and the Lightning used the 5-on-3 to make it 4-2 when Nikita Kucherov scored from just outside the right post.
“The first penalty that put us down 5-on-4, we got running around our end a little bit,” Blashill said. “Eventually, you’re going to end up with a call and it was a good tripping call by them. The second one, I didn’t really like the call. I thought that play happens a lot, but that’s part of hockey.”
Niklas Kronwall landed in the box while Abdelkader was still in residency, also giving the Lightning 47 seconds with a man advantage to start the third period.
“We took too many penalties,” Mantha said after earning his first NHL point on Helm’s goal. “We were shorthanded a lot in the second period especially, and it’s hard to bounce back when they get 5-on-3s and 5-on-4s.”
Palat flicked a backhand into a wide-open net on a rebound 1:03 into the third period, and Condra scored his second with 3 minutes left in regulation.
