Wings Postgame: Severe Lightning Storm

Photo Credit: Kim Klement/USA TODAY SPORTS

It was another must win game for the Detroit Red Wings (although every game should be a must win at this point), as they concluded their four-game road trip in Tampa Bay.

However, the forecast called for stormy weather, as the Lightning struck in the same place several times in a 6-2 blowout win over the Wings.

The Wings got off to a slow start in the first. Just 1:47 in, Ondrej Palat made an excellent pass through a confused Niklas Kronwall and Jonathan Ericsson to Erik Condra, who would go bar down on Jimmy Howard.

At the midway point, Howard would stop a wide open JT Brown in front of the net, but lost sight of the rebound, and Vladislav Namestnikov would jam the loose puck in between Howard’s legs to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead.

Their luck wouldn’t continue in the second, as Steven Stamkos set up Alex Killorn in front of the net. Except he didn’t, as Ericsson got in the way, and the puck bounced off of him, past a surprised Howard, and in for a 3-0 defecit, which was the last we would see of Howard that night.

However, the Wings fortunes would change, as a Zetterberg shot would bounce off of a couple of bodies onto the stick of Justin Abdelkader, who would capitalize on a gaping net, and the Red Wings were on the board.

The Wings second goal saw a great passing play, as a Danny DeKeyser stretch pass (tipped by Anthony Mantha for his first NHL point) to Pavel Datsyuk, who would give Darren Helm a no-look backhand pass, and Helm would do a little dance around Killorn and fire it between Ben Bishop’s five-hole to make it a one goal game.

But, the Red Wings remembered that they didn’t want to win, and a couple penalties later, had to kill a lengthy 5 on 3. Tyler Johnson would make an excellent pass to Nikita Kucherov through Kronwall, and the Lightning would regain their two goal lead.

The third period wasn’t too much better, as goals from Ondrej Palat and Condra put the game out of reach for the Wings.

As you can see, up until the Namestnikov goal, Tampa was dominating the game at evens. Afterwards, Detroit evened it up before Stamkos scored, and it was back and forth hockey afterwards, with the Wings having a slight edge, although we can probably credit that to our good friend, Score Effects.

The Wings finished with a 51.57% 5v5 Score-Adjusted Corsi, but that shouldn’t do them any justice, as the defense gave up way too many scoring opportunities, as shown by the Lightning’s 56.29% 5v5 Score-Adjusted Scoring Chances.

It’s hard to call him the MVP due to nature of the loss, but Anthony Mantha gets it for getting his first NHL point. He wasn’t too bad in other ends of the game either, as he had a 60.85% 5v5 Score-Adjusted Corsi For, and had four individual shot attempts at even strength, three of them being scoring chances.

The Red Wings start a three-game homestand on Thursday, as they host the Montreal Canadiens at 7:30 p.m.