Bolts take aim at a third-straight victory Tuesday vs. Detroit

The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to win a third-straight game for the ninth time this season when they battle the Detroit Red Wings tonight at 7 p.m. at AMALIE Arena. Tonight marks the fourth and final matchup of the season between these two teams, with Tampa Bay looking to sweep the season series after winning all three previous contests. The Lightning have swept the Red Wings during the regular season in three of the past five years.

The teams last faced off less than a month ago on March 26 in Detroit, with Tampa Bay walking away with a 2-1 overtime victory. Brian Elliott and Alex Nedeljkovic battled it out all night at Little Caesars Arena with neither goaltender allowing a goal through the opening two periods. With 11:19 remaining in the third period, Oskar Sundqvist opened the scoring to give Detroit the 1-0 lead.
After Filip Zadina committed a hooking penalty against Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, the Bolts got their second chance of the night on the power play and took full advantage with Steven Stamkos scoring his 29th goal of the season with just 4:38 remaining in regulation. Stamkos would go on to record his second point of the night when he picked up the primary assist on Brayden Point's game-winning goal in overtime, the Lightning's second power-play goal of the game.
Overall, Tampa Bay has scored an impressive eight goals on 14 power-play opportunities against Detroit this season, including multiple power-play goals in each of the three meetings. The penalty kill has also been strong against the Red Wings, with the Bolts killing off 11 of 12 opportunities.

One player the Lightning will have to watch out for on Tuesday night is rookie defenseman Moritz Seider, who has posted three assists and a plus-three rating against Tampa Bay this season. A native of Zell, Germany, Seider has jumped off the page with a fantastic rookie season after being drafted sixth overall by Detroit in the 2019 NHL Draft.
Seider has skated in 76 games this season, registering six goals and 41 assists for 47 points. At 6'4", 197 pounds, the right-handed defenseman has a great chance to win the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the NHL, and be a staple on the Red Wings blue line for years to come.
"He's outstanding," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "I don't want to pump the kid's tires too much because he hasn't played a full year in the league yet, but Steve Yzerman knew what he was doing when he drafted this kid.
"I remember there were some naysayers out there, too, about whether this was the right pick when they took him. Once again he's proved everybody wrong, but it's on the player too. The player has to come in and decide what he wants to be.
"I don't have any votes in the rookie of the year, but I'll be shocked if this kid doesn't win it and, you know, he's richly deserving, especially at the position he's playing. That's tough to come in this league and do what he's doing and he's done a hell of a job."
Andrei Vasilevskiy will get the start in goal for Tampa Bay on Tuesday night after Brian Elliott was between the pipes in the Bolts' win over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. With seven games remaining in the regular season, Cooper discussed some of the elements of giving Vasilevskiy rest heading into the postseason.
"You've just got to make sure he's still involved," said Cooper. "I'm not so sure you're going to see three games a week anymore from either of our guys. Vasy will go tonight and probably Toronto and then maybe we'll go to Elliott on Saturday.
"You get to this time of year and the guys have done a lot of great things - another year of over 100 points, but now the goal is putting ourselves in the best position to have success in the playoffs and to be able to give Vasy a little bit of rest the last three weeks of the season. If that means pulling what normally would be one extra game a week, we're in a position to be able to do that without sacrificing his rhythm of the season.
"I think a big thing for Vasy, too, is he likes to get in the gym and the more he plays, the less he gets to get in there. There you give his body a little bit more of some physical rejuvenation and give the mind a little bit of a break and put him in the best spot to succeed, so that's what we're going to do now."
Bellemare also spoke with the media on Tuesday morning and touched on some of the recent success he and his linemates, Pat Maroon and Corey Perry, have been having. The trio will look to keep their strong play moving in the right direction before the playoffs begin.
"There's been a stretch of six games, or maybe a little bit more, we've been a little bit better before we even started scoring," said Bellemare. "I think we've went back to our identity and been a little bit better in that. Weirdly enough, we didn't get any points in those games, but then a few games later, we started getting rewarded.

"Last game, maybe it wasn't our best, per se, but we still got rewarded. And at the end of the day, if you look at the way we get rewarded - it's pretty simple hockey. Our line can stay pretty simple and make sure we stay as reliable as possible for the coach to be able to put us out against whoever he wants.
"We're the only line that stayed together pretty much the whole year long, so that helps also for me to know what the other two guys like to do or what their habits are. We all have different parts in our game which help each other like, those two guys, when we're red line and up, I can for sure put the puck deep and I know they're going to reach it.
"If I'm in the O-zone and I don't have that creativity, I know I can put the puck behind and they're going to win that puck. Then, out of that, we can create some awesome plays."
With the fourth line solidified, the Lightning will continue trying to find the ideal combinations heading into the playoffs. Over the last two wins, Tampa Bay has had success with Paul-Point-Kucherov, Palat-Stamkos-Colton, and Hagel-Cirelli-Killorn. Those will likely be the combinations for tonight's contest as the Bolts look to push their win streak to three games.
The Lightning currently sit in third place in the Atlantic Division behind the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have played one more game and have a six-point lead over Tampa Bay.