Lightning at Red Wings
The Tampa Bay Lightning only have about 18 hours to recover from an physical and emotional battle with the league’s top team when they visit the NHL-worst Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, seeking a 17th straight regular-season win in the series. The Lightning hung on for a 5-3 victory at Boston on Saturday night and will also lose an hour from daylight savings time before hitting the ice in the late afternoon Sunday.
Tampa Bay could be without Norris Trophy winner Victor Hedman, who played just 4 minutes, 36 seconds before suffering an undisclosed injury Saturday, but fellow defenseman Ryan McDonagh may return to the lineup after missing about a month with a lower-body ailment. The Lightning’s 16-game run against Detroit is the longest in franchise history versus one opponent, and Sunday’s matchup is the first of three games between the Atlantic Division rivals in the final month of the regular season. The Red Wings are coming off one of their best performances of the season Friday when they snapped a six-game losing streak (0-5-1) with a 2-1 victory over visiting Chicago as Jonathan Bernier turned aside 32 shots. “We were relentless,” center Dylan Larkin told the Detroit Free Press. “Minus the first shift and until they scored, I thought we controlled play. They didn’t have a whole lot and their big guys were getting frustrated. We were smart with the puck and we created a lot. … We need to build off that.”
TIME: 5 p.m. ET. TV: FS Sun, FS Detroit
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (43-20-5): Reigning Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov sealed the game with an empty-net goal and owns at least a point in 21 of his last 22 games to push his team-leading total to 83. Mikhail Sergachev scored his career-best 10th goal Saturday short-handed and added an assist while playing a career-high 28 minutes, 20 seconds and fellow defenseman Zach Bogosian, recently signed as a free agent, played 22:02 with an assist in Hedman’s absence. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves Saturday and will likely yield the net Sunday to backup Curtis McElhinney (8-7-2), who has won three of four.
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (16-48-5): Larkin boasts three goals and seven assists in the last eight games to boost his team-leading total to 50 points while Tyler Bertuzzi scored Friday to pull within two of his career high (21, 2018-19). Right wing Anthony Mantha recorded two of his 15 goals in the last four games while forward Robby Fabbri has 31 points (30 with Detroit), six shy of his career best with St. Louis in 2015-16. Bernier (14-21-3, .909 save percentage) has stopped 93-of-99 shots in his past three outings, but is 1-1-1 in that stretch, and Jimmy Howard (2-23-2, .882) has not played since Feb. 27.
OVERTIME
1. Detroit D Gustav Lindstrom registered his first NHL point in Friday’s win with an assist in his 14th game.
2. Tampa Bay F Alex Killorn scored his 26th goal Saturday and needs one point to reach 50 for the first time in his career.
3. The Red Wings ranked 28th in the league on the power play (15 percent) and 30th on the penalty kill (75.3).