*Photo from Wingin it in Motown*
Yeah, the Detroit Red Wings may be all but out of the playoff race, but they still play hard, and it's a look at things that lie ahead. Lucas Raymond scored, Jakub Vrana scored two goals, and the Red Wings defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 4-3 win on Tuesday night in Tampa Bay.
The win was a nice change of pace for the Red Wings, who picked up the two points. Detroit's offense in particular, which had been outscored 10-1 by their opponents in the last two games, picked up 4 goals in the win. They also played spoiler to Tampa Bay, who is now just one point ahead of the Boston Bruins for 3rd place in the Atlantic Division.
Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said of Vrana's two goal game that "He played as complete a hockey game as he's played all year for us. I thought he was excellent in every facet of the game. He checked great, he worked hard, he won battles, he was good on the wall."
After a scoreless first period, Ross Colton broke the ice, giving the Lightning a 1-0 lead with his 18th goal of the season, coming 3:58 into the second period. A mere 22 seconds later, Oskar Sundqvist scored for the Red Wings, tying the game up 1-1. Vrana scored at the 6:34 mark of the period, putting Detroit up by a 2-1 score. After Raymond scored to make it 3-1 Red Wings, Nikita Kucherov scored for the Lightning, making it a 3-2 game after two periods.
In the 3rd period, Colton struck again for the Lightning, tying the game 3-3 with his second goal of the night, this one just 43 seconds into the 3rd, with assists coming from Steven Stamkos and Erik Cernak. Vrana then scored the game winner 5:09 into the period, his second goal of the night, an unassisted goal.
Vrana said of his strong offensive game that "I'm trying to create offense here as much as possible to give the team a chance. There are things that we have to do to get those chances, and that's what we did tonight. We put ourselves in a good position to win the game."
Getting the start for the Red Wings was Thomas Greiss, who performed well on a high shot volume. Greiss stopped 38 of the 41 shots he faced from the Lightning offense, stifling them for most of the game. That was good for a .927 save percentage in the win, boosting his record to 10-14-1 in 27 starts this season.
On the other side of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start for the Lightning. Vasilevskiy stopped 27 out of the 31 shots he faced, posting a .871 save percentage, being beaten with one extra save by Greiss. Vasilevskiy's record dropped to 35-18-5 on the season.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said that "It's one of those games that we clearly beat ourselves, and it's becoming a little bit too much of our story. It was odd-mans, breakaways, turnovers, and it's perplexing why some of these players that have been with us for a while, especially in game 76, are continuing to do this. It's too bad."
Up next, the Lightning host the division rival Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, with Vasilevskiy to get the start. Alex Nedeljkovic is expected to start for the Red Wings when they take on the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
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