Lightning at Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings have shown they are not going away easily and can even the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series when the Tampa Bay Lightning visit for Game 4 on Tuesday. The Red Wings limited Tampa Bay to 16 shots on net in Sunday’s 2-0 victory and goaltender Petr Mrazek notched his third shutout in eight playoff starts against the Lightning.
“I thought everyone really battled hard,” Detroit center Luke Glendening told reporters. “We got a ton of energy from our fans, which was awesome. … But it was just one game. Now we’ve got to go get the next one.” Glendening was instrumental - along with Justin Abdelkader and Riley Sheahan -- in holding the red-hot line of Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov without a shot Sunday after the trio recorded 15 points in the first two games. “It’s frustrating that we just didn’t play our best,” Johnson told reporters. “We know we need to be better. The team needs to be better. It starts with us.” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said the Lightning needed more “will” to get pressure on Mrazek and told reporters, “it went from us pinning them against the wall, to now it’s a series.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, CBC, TVAS2, FSN Detroit, FSN Florida (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING: Tampa Bay’s penalty-killing unit has been outstanding in the series (16-for-17), but the Lightning could not generate much offense Sunday while losing puck battles and being forced to blank Detroit on seven power-play tries. Goalie Ben Bishop has allowed two goals or fewer in 20-of-27 career playoff games and told reporters, “We expected them to be desperate. Now it’s our turn to turn the tables.” Erik Condra took the spot in the lineup vacated by fellow forward J.T. Brown (upper body), who is lost for the series, and was a minus-1 while playing only 7:28 on Sunday.
ABOUT THE RED WINGS: Mrazek told reporters he is confident despite posting an .884 save percentage in March and taking over for Jimmy Howard, who played the first two games of the series. “I think it’s positive he’s had the opportunity to get away and just get back to work on his game.” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill told reporters of Mrazek. Blashill shuffled his lines, moving captain Henrik Zetterberg between Gustav Nyquist and Dylan Larkin while Pavel Datsyuk centered Brad Richards and Darren Helm, and Andreas Athanasiou played with Joakim Andersson and Tomas Tatar in Game 3.
OVERTIME
1. Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman and RW-LW Jonathan Drouin lead the team with nine shots apiece in the series.
2. Detroit D Brendan Smith (three hits, two blocks, plus-1 rating) was back in the lineup in place of D Kyle Quincey, who was minus-3 in the first two games.
3. The teams have combined to average more than 70 penalty minutes in the first three contests – way more than any other first-round series.