Tampa Bay Lightning Lead Detroit Red Wings 3-1 After Battle Through Four Games

The Atlantic Division playoff matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and the Tampa Bay Lightning has been a physical series with penalties and scrums playing heavily into the series. 

Every game in the series has seen a large share of combined penalty between the two teams and we are only at the midway point of the series. The Bolts and the Wings battle has seen the most penalty minutes of all eight series in this young playoff season. 

The two division rivals have combined for 63 penalties for 215 minutes, and that was through the first three games. The next highest penalized series is the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers series with 143 minutes, 67 of those minutes were from Monday night’s game three in that series. 

Lightning defenseman, Andrei Sustr said on the team’s website, “I do not think any team wants to take penalties, especially, in a playoff game where it could cost you. That definitely was not the focus coming into the series to be the most penalized series. We want to be disciplined and give them the least amount of opportunities to score.  Staying out of the box is one of them.”

The first game of this Atlantic Conference battle, took place in Tampa Bay. Nikita Kucherov opened the scoring for the Lightning almost six and a half into the opening frame. Tyler Johnson and Alexander Killorn picked up the helpers. 

In the middle frame of the first game, the Wings got two goals with a span of two minutes from Mike Green and Justin Abdelkader to put take a 2-1 lead within the first four minutes of the second. Danny Dekeyser and Tomas Tatar got the helpers on Green’s goal and Kyle Quincey was credited with the assist on Abdelkader’s tally. 

Nine and a half into the middle frame of the opening game, Kucherov struck again to tie the game at two. Braydon Coburn and Nikita Nesterov picked up the helpers. Killorn put the Bolts ahead for good in the opener about nine minutes into the final period as Kucherov and Johnson helped him on the game winning tally.

 

The penalties minutes for first game racked up to a combined 36 minutes, with Abdelkader leading the way with six of them. 

The second game of this war must have had team photos in the penalty box. The two teams racked up 114 minutes in penalties. The Wings as a team spent 63 minutes in the sinbin, while the Bolts were not far behind racking up 51 minutes. 

Johnson scored twice and picked up two assists in the second battle, helping lead his Lightning to a 5-2 victory. His four points on April 15^th, tied Vincent Lacavalier’s record of four points he scored for the Bolts against the Boston Bruins in the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals. 

Kucherov, Killorn and Brian Boyle also picked up goals in the second game, while goaltender Ben Bishop turned away 30 Red Wings shots. Brad Richards and Dylan Larkin lit the lamp for the Wings.

After the first games at Amalie Arena, the line of Johnson, Killorn and Kucherov combined for 15 points, seven goals and eight assists. The Red Wings would hope to slow them down as the series shifted to the Motor City. 

On Sunday the war shift to Motown, and the two team continued to show how much they think of each other. Sixty minutes of penalties were racked up in the third installment of the Atlantic Conference war. Tampa made their way to the box for 40 of those minutes while Detroit saw the inside of the penalty box door for 20 minutes of the game. 

The Wings decided to change it up between the pipes and sent Petr Mrazek onto the battlefield to try and right the ship. Mrazek’s series debut turned out to be a 16 save shutout. 

Andreas Athanasiou and Henrik Zetterberg lit the lamp for the Red Wings to help get the team back into the series. The shutout was Mrazek’s third career in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, all three have been against the Lightning. 

The Wings held the Bolts top line without a shot in the third game, which helped them out with the outcome of the game. They were able to limit the rest of the to only 16 shots on Sunday night, as opposed to the first two games when the Lightning threw 34 in the first and 31 in second game, on Jimmy Howard.   

Game four did not have as many penalties as the second and third game did. Only 22 minutes of penalty time was registered on Tuesday night. Ondrej Palat did score on the power-play though, with 2:59 left in the game to help the Lightning take a 3-1 series lead back to Tampa with a chance to wrap things up at home on Thursday night.

Kucherov also had two power-play goals and Jonathan Drouin had three assists on Tuesday night as
Bishop turned away 26 shots for the 3-2 victory. Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist lit the lamp for the Red Wings, as Mrazek stopped 30 Lightning shots. 

Just about four and a half minutes before Palat tipped Drouin’s pass behind Mrazek for the game winning goal, Larkin hit the post from in front of the net. After only putting 16 shots on net the whole game on Sunday, the Bolts peppered Mrazek with 14 in the first period Tuesday night. 

Tampa went three for five on the power-play Tuesday night, while Detroit was unsuccessful on all four of their power-play chances. 

Game five will take place at Amalie Arena in Tampa, on Thursday night. The Lightning hope to wrap up the series in front of their home fans, while the Red Wings will try to send the series back to Joe Louis Arena in Detroit for a sixth game.