Over the first three games of the series, Tampa Bay was 1 of 14 on the power play and Detroit was 1 of 17 with at least one extra skater. The Red Wings need to start clicking on their power play while shutting down the Lightning power play. Lundqvist made 28 saves, giving up a power-play goal to Crosby and a one-on-one chance to Cullen.
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We’ve really lauded the play of the 6-foot-7 netminder since Day 1 of the campaign – and even longer, actually – but No. 30 really did save his best of the season for this five-game series.
“Either you win or you go home and the season’s over”, Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall said.
Nikita Kucherov scored his fourth and fifth goals of this series as him and Tyler Johnson have, for all intents of purposes, killed the Red Wings this series. Not that Washington was high on the list of teams that dealt with injuries this season, but they were also without Brooks Opik for exactly half of it – 41 games.
Brian Boyle won a faceoff, sending the puck back to Victor Hedman and he skated toward the front of the net. Detroit emerged victorious in Game 3 by a 2-0 margin when the series shifted to the Joe Louis Arena, but dropped Game 4, 3-2, on Tuesday.
Stars didn’t shine: Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk have been cornerstones of the Red Wings’ success during the past decade.
It worked, helping the Red Wings blank Tampa Bay 2-0 and cut their deficit to 2-1 in the first-round series. “They did a good job of not letting us set up”, he said. When the Tampa Bay Lightning hit the ice for the third period of play, the Tampa Bay Lightning seemed to have much more energy in their stride.
How bad were the Red Wings offensively in this series?
If Detroit doesn’t find a way to solve its lingering problems on the power play and now while killing penalties, its 25th straight postseason appearance will end very soon.
It’s definitely still a work in progress, but Drouin’s breakout game is a sign of just how risky this Lightning team still can be, even without injured captain Steven Stamkos.
The Red Wings’ fortunes hinged on their young guns coming alive.
Coach Jeff Blashill cited the special teams battle as the key to the series, with the power play being the one area the Red Wings were lacking through the series. The Rangers have lost four consecutive playoff games at Madison Square Garden going back to last season’s Eastern Conference final against Tampa Bay.
Datsyuk wasn’t ready to comment on his future in the National Hockey League directly after the game but he was thankful for all of the support he received in Detroit. Lets make a few more plays on it. Lets challenge each other and be a little bit better on it.. “I just had to keep them out of the net”.
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Bishop and Mrazek had remained deadlocked in a scoreless tie deep into the third period, with Bishop being tested much more but Mrazek facing more shots in the final period. “Anytime you can draw on that experience I think it’s a good thing and we’re going to try to do that again in this series”. They played solid defensively and waited for their chance. If you like goals, no two teams have combined for more these playoffs.
