Lyon, Red Wings hang on, end Lightning winning streak at 5

DETROIT – Alex Lyon made 27 saves to help the Detroit Red Wings defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday.

“That’s a very, very dangerous team and I thought we played really well tonight,” Lyon said. “This might have been one of the more complete games we played all season.”

Lucas Raymond and Daniel Sprong scored for Detroit (24-17-5), which has won seven of its past nine games.

“The goal at the beginning of the season was to be in the playoffs and try to go as far as we can,” Sprong said. “It’s a long season, but right now we’re playing some really good hockey. We have to keep rolling like this.”

Victor Hedman scored for Tampa Bay (24-18-5), which had won five straight. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves.

“Some nights, you are struggling to get momentum and fighting to make plays,” Hedman said. “We couldn’t get anything going until the third, and we had some unbelievable looks and couldn’t put anything in.”

The Lightning took just 10 shots in the first two periods.

“You can’t just play one period in this league and expect to win,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We had a chance to win, but only because our goalie gave us a chance.”

The Lightning took a 1-0 lead at 8:45 of the first period when Hedman finished off a give-and-go with Nikita Kucherov for his ninth goal of the season.

Raymond made it 1-1 with his 13th goal at 18:29. His wrist shot got past Vasilevskiy and the goalie knocked it across the line as he tried to bat it away. Dylan Larkin’s assist extended his point streak to eight games (five goals, five assists).

Sprong gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead at 8:58 of the second period, beating Vasilevskiy on a breakaway after J.T. Compher forced a turnover.

“[Patrick] Kane was telling me all morning to shoot low glove against him,” Sprong said. “Vasilevskiy is probably the best goalie in the league -- it isn’t easy to score on him. That helped.”

Lyon made 18 third-period saves, including two in the final 10 seconds when Tampa Bay was on a 6-on-4 power play.

“Any time you can match performances with Vasilevskiy, it is huge,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “That’s what we needed tonight, especially in the third period.”

NOTES: The game finished off a unique sweep for the city of Detroit against the city of Tampa. Earlier on Sunday, the Lions defeated the Buccaneers 31-23 in an NFL playoff game. That gave fans about an hour to make the short walk from Ford Field to Little Caesars Arena to see the Red Wings defeat the Lightning. … Vasilevskiy lost for the first time in seven career starts in Detroit. … Detroit took three penalties in the third period, but Lyon stopped all nine Lightning shots with the man-advantage.