Detroit Red Wings withstand frantic finish in Florida, overcome Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2

Detroit Free Press

TAMPA, Fla. — The Detroit Red Wings measured up to an elite opponent, and got their head coach a victory in his former home.

They put on a good start and a resilient finish Tuesday at Amalie Arena against the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team that has been to the Stanley Cup Final the last three seasons. Even better, the Wings maintained pressure and composure and earned a well-deserved 4-2 victory to string together two victories on the first two games of their road trip.

Ville Husso was excellent, making 43 saves but so were his teammates. The penalty kill clicked, the Wings forechecked and created chances and got goals from Michael Rasmussen and Jonatan Berggren.

The score prompted the Bolts to gamble and pull Andrei Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker, leading to a wild last few minutes. Steven Stamkos sent a seeing-eye puck through traffic with 5:08 to play. Adam Erne followed up with an empty net goal 90 seconds later. Brayden Point got it back to a one-goal game with 2:26 to play. David Perron put the game again with an empty net goal with 24.8 seconds left.

The Wings (13–7–5) next play Thursday at the Florida Panthers.

Good start

The Wings rose to the challenge right away, doing a good job establishing possession and forcing sharp saves from Vasilevskiy. An early penalty to Oskar Sundqvist was killed off. Dominik Kubalik was denied on a breakaway and stifled on another good chance down low. Husso withstood multiple odd man rushes. Shots were 12-9 to the Wings after the first period as they showed how good they can be when they play with energy and cohesion.

Welcome back

The Lightning played a nice video tribute to Lalonde during a timeout in the first period, recognizing his four years as an assistant coach before he was named head coach of the Wings in July. His former boss, Jon Cooper, said earlier in the day he roots for Lalonde, except against the Bolts, naturally: “I cheer for him. People that come from your organization, you want them to do well. He’s got a winning pedigree. Newsy needed to learn the NHL game and he came here and that’s what he did. He’s got a good feel for the game and a great feel for the guys in the room.”

More:How his Tampa Bay days have propelled Derek Lalonde to succeed as Detroit Red Wings coach

More:Ex-Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill to-do list in Tampa: Teach defense, drain pools

Building momentum

Kubalik was rewarded for his outstanding first period with a point in the second. Credit to Filip Hronek, who fed the puck to Kubalik. He transported the puck up the boards and centered a pass to Rasmussen, who shrugged off having Mikhail Sergechev on his back and flicked the puck into Tampa’s net. That was followed by another solid outing by the penalty killers, this time while Austin Czarnik was in the box. Berggren followed up with a goal six minutes into the third period, when he deflected Olli Määttä’s shot from the blue line.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

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