#LGRW Final: Red Wings fall in overtime in home opener vs. Lightning, 7-6

Last week, before Tyler Bertuzzi stepped on the ice for his first preseason game, it wasn't entirely clear how healthy he was. Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said he'd be back in time for Thursday's opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but with limited preseason runway, it was unclear what to expect.
But with 7:31 to go in the second period of an eventual 7-6 Red Wings loss that featured everything you'd want to see in a hockey game, Bertuzzi took aim at an open net, Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy facing the other way, and buried his third goal of the night, putting Detroit up 4-1, hats raining onto the ice at a sold-out Little Caesars Arena.

"The fans were amazing," Bertuzzi said later. "It was a packed building, it was crazy. Atmosphere, it almost felt like a playoff game."

Minutes earlier, play had been stopped for an extended period of time after Tampa's Mathieu Joseph instigated a fight with Dylan Larkin, boarding him with a cross check that targeted his neck. Larkin threw a punch at Joseph, resulting in a match penalty for intent to injure that carries a one-game suspension.
But because the Lightning picked up a second penalty in the ensuing melee, the Red Wings went to 4-on-3 once play started up again - and immediately took advantage, keeping all the momentum they'd earned by going up 3-0 to start the game.
That momentum would be short-lived.
On the ensuing Tampa Bay power play, Steven Stamkos buried two goals - the first on a slap shot at 15:19, the second less than a minute later - keeping a frenetic, end-to-end game from getting out of hand.
In the moment, that sequence seemed like a hinge point in the game. By the end of the night, it felt like a distant memory.
"Every game," Blashill said, "kinda takes on a life of its own."
The Red Wings took a second three-goal lead in the third period, going up 6-3 on Bertuzzi's fourth and a Vladislav Namestnikov goal at 7:10. But with nearly 13 minutes to go in the game, the Lightning wouldn't be denied.

Ross Colton pulled Tampa back within two at 13:43, redirecting an Erik Cernak shot past Alex Nedeljkovic. When Robby Fabbri took a tripping penalty two minutes later, the tension in the building grew. When a Nikita Kucherov slap shot made its way past Nedeljkovic on the power play that came from it, the tension hit an explosive point.
And when Alex Killorn tied the game at six, sending the game to overtime, the crowd exhaled all at once.
With 2:17 to go in overtime, Ondrej Palat finished the job, getting a stick on a Victor Hedman shot to make it a 7-6 final. The Red Wings didn't touch the puck in the overtime session.
In the morning, Blashill had talked about how the Lightning can be more dangerous when they're down by more than one goal. Afterwards, he sat at the podium having experienced it.
"The goal that hurts is the third goal. To me that's the one that hurts," he said. Then he raised an eyebrow. "Or the fourth goal, maybe?"

Once the Lightning went with an empty net, he said, the Red Wings needed to find a way to win.
"We played well enough to win the hockey game," Blashill said. "We take a penalty (at) 5-on-6 and we gave up a 5-on-6 goal. So we gotta do better than that for sure."
In other recent seasons, the highlight of the night for Detroit against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions might have been the pregame ceremony, in which Larkin was honored as captain at center ice, standing with a row of past Red Wings captains.
Even with the loss, you couldn't say that about this game.
Larkin scored in the first, putting in a loose puck after Robby Fabbri created a breakaway against the run of play, and Bertuzzi scored his first goal 18 seconds into the second period - splitting two defenders and finishing past Vasilevskiy. Bertuzzi's second came just after a power play expired at 7:52, cleaning up a loose puck after Adam Erne's shot was saved by Vasilevskiy.

That set the stage for a hectic final 10 minutes of the second period, featuring three goals and seven penalties, sending the game into the third with Detroit hanging onto a 4-3 lead.
In the end, neither that nor the ensuing 6-3 lead would be enough.
"I thought we were in a good spot," Blashill said. "I was real confident that we were gonna find a way to win that hockey game. So it's a gut punch when you don't."