Taking a drop pass from Brayden Point just inside the Detroit blue line, Kucherov sent a pass to Hedman, who immediately dropped the puck back to the All-Star winger. Skating to the top of the left circle, Kucherov had the attention of everyone on the ice before dishing a pass across the zone to the right faceoff dot, where Hedman was waiting to fire a one-timer past Alex Lyon for the game-opening goal.
Unfortunately for the Lightning, that was the only time the puck would cross the goal line behind Lyon, who went on to finish the night with 28 saves on 29 shots against.
With 1:31 left in the first period, Andrei Vasilevskiy made the initial save on a shot from the slot off the stick of Lucas Raymond, but the puck soared into the air and ended up behind the Tampa Bay goaltender before eventually finding its way into the back of the net.
Tampa Bay was only able to muster 10 shots on goal through the opening 40 minutes and leaned heavily on Vasilevskiy, who was fantastic between the pipes for the Bolts, making multiple 10-bell saves throughout the contest.
It took a breakaway for Detroit to beat Vasilevskiy a second time with Daniel Sprong getting behind the Lightning defensemen and firing home his 12th goal of the year at the 8:58 mark of the first. That would go down as the final goal of the contest.
Despite a less than satisfactory opening 40 minutes, Tampa Bay pieced together a strong third period, outshooting the Red Wings 19-4 during the final frame. But Lyon made some key saves for Detroit and, while the Bolts came inches away from tying the game on multiple occasions, the team just couldn’t find a way to will the puck over the line before the final horn sounded.
Vasilevskiy finished the night with 33 saves on 35 shots against in one of his best performances of the season. The Lightning fell to 24-18-5 on the campaign with a road record of 9-13-2 and will wrap up the three-game road trip with a battle against the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center.
Bolts by the Numbers
- Victor Hedman scored his ninth goal and is up to 45 points on the season (9-36—45). Hedman ranks third among all Lightning skaters in points this season, trailing Nikita Kucherov (28-48—76) and Brayden Point (21-27—48). Hedman finished the night with eight shots on goal, tied for the third most in his career.
- Nikita Kucherov recorded the primary assist on Hedman’s game-opening goal and his up to 76 points on the year (28-48—76). He’s notched 43 points over his last 26 contests vs. Detroit (19-24—43).
- Brayden Point picked up the secondary helper on Hedman’s goal and pushed his season point total to 48 (21-27—48).
Bolts Quotes
- Jon Cooper: “You just can't play a one-period game in this league and expect to win. We had a chance and the only reason we had a chance is because our goalie gave us a chance. We get that goal semi-early in the game that was a heck of a play by those guys and as soon as that happened, our game went south and they turned it up a notch.”
- Brayden Point: “The shots kind of tell the tale of those two periods. I think it was 30-10 after two. In a game like this with a team we’re chasing, it’s definitely not good enough. We tried to come out in the third and we played a good third, but too little too late. Vas kept us in it for the most part, but we couldn’t get it done in the third.”
- Cooper: “If you want to make the playoffs, you can't lay an egg like that against a team you're going neck and neck against. We reeled off five in a row just to pull us back into a race and now we've got a chance to say, 'Hey, we've arrived,' and we failed tonight. As disappointing as it is, we can salvage this trip against a team that we're neck and neck with again. Hopefully we can learn from tonight and take a little momentum from what we did in the third to the next game.”
