Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Ondrej Palat, of the Czech Republic, right, hugs center Alex Killorn, left, after the Lightning defeated the Detroit Red Wings 1-0 in Game 5 in a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday, April 21, 2016, in Tampa, Fla.
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Datsyuk, 37, has played with Detroit since the 2001-02 season and has racked up 918 points in 953 regular-season games while winning two Stanley Cups with the Red Wings.
Kucharev’s second power-play goal of the game made it 2-0 with 9:29 left in the second period.
The Lightning now lead the series 3-1 and need just one more win as they return to home ice on Thursday.
Andersen, who started in net after John Gibson took the first two losses in Anaheim, posted his second postseason shutout despite taking Shea Weber’s slap shot off his head.
Overshadowed by Bishop, who allowed only eight goals in five games, Mrazek played well Thursday as the Lightning eliminated the Red Wings for the second consecutive year.
After a solid rookie season previous year, Drouin failed to report to his second demotion to the minors and was suspended by the team in January until March.
Pulock left Game 4 Wednesday night with 7:40 left in the third period after a big collision with Panthers forward Garrett Wilson just before Florida scored the go-ahead goal in its 2-1 win that evened the series.
St. Louis nearly joined the Lightning in the last eight but lost in overtime at home against Chicago, with Patrick Kane’s victor cutting the series deficit to 3-2 and keeping the reigning champions alive. I don’t think it’s surreal. Nikita Kucherov took the first, with two goals and an assist adding to his great playoff record this series. They will host game five on Saturday night.
“We did a lot of good things except getting the puck behind Bishop”, Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg said. “It’s awesome. I’m happy [to wear] the Red Wings’ logo”.
Tampa Bay scored three times with the man advantage on Tuesday, while Detroits power play went 0-for-4.
Now, they’ve got a 3-1 stranglehold on the best-of-seven series in spite of Stamkos’ absence, which was supposed to doom the defending Eastern Conference champs.
“I had a really good time, a really fun time”, Datsyuk told Fox Sports Detroit. The Wings have to win three straight games to advance. “One is we’re a hockey team so I certainly would spread blame throughout the entire team for a reason that we’d be down 3-1”. “We just scored a couple more goals there”. A third penalty kill saw Riley Sheahan test Bishop on a breakaway and Darren Helm also create a scoring chance by the crease.
Mrazek was pulled late in the game, giving the Red Wings an extra skater, but they still struggled to generate much offense.
Power failure: Perhaps it was appropriate that the series ended with the Red Wings failing to score on a power play.
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In contrast, no Detroit player scored more than one goal, and only Tomas Tatar (three assists) and Mike Green (one goal, one assist) had more than one point. Mrazek wasn’t tested as often but his teammates played a hand in that by limiting the line of Johnson, Kucherov and Killorn to a combined two shots heading into the final period.
