Propelled by some strong play from Ben Bishop and Victor Hedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning were able to beat the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 3-1. The win, their 44th of the year, pulls the Bolts to within two points of the Montreal Canadiens for first place in the Atlantic Division; in addition, it widens the gap between them and the Wings. Simply put, this was a big one.
I mentioned in the pre-game blog that this was going to be a matchup between two goliaths – it didn’t disappoint. When you put two teams that like to play a puck possession game in a head-to-head situation, entertainment often follows. The 3-1 score may not scream ‘excitement,’ but the game was far from boring.
One thing the Lightning have to be particularly proud of on this occasion is the way they pushed the pace against one of the elite teams in hockey. As mentioned above, Detroit likes to play a puck possession game; the Lightning didn’t let them possess the puck all that much on Friday night. Yes, there were stretches when the Wings were the better team, but on the whole it was the Bolts who controlled the play. Consider the following possession chart, courtesy of HockeyStats.ca, as evidence:
5v5 shot attempts chart for #DETvsTBL courtesy of @HockeyStatsCa. Solid performance against a quality opponent. pic.twitter.com/M7drJ3mpca
— Michael Stuart (@hockeybuzzstu) March 21, 2015While the Lightning did open up a possession advantage as the game moved along, that chart clearly shows that the first period was an evenly played frame. The goaltenders were on their game, as both Jimmy Howard and Ben Bishop made big save after big save. For a goaltender who was ice cold heading into the game, Howard looked like an all-star all night long. Both he and his teammates have to be happy with the way he responded after a little bit of adversity.
The Bolts finally broke through Howard’s force field early in the second period. It was Anton Stralman who made it a 1-0 game with his seventh goal of the 2014-15 campaign. Able to jump up into the slot, Stralman took a well-engineered Victor Hedman rebound and popped it past Howard for the score. With Friday’s goal included, Stralman now has 35 points on the year – that’s a new career high!
That 1-0 lead didn’t last long, however, as Detroit responded minutes later with a power play goal to knot things up at one. After Bishop made a phenomenal toe save, the puck squeaked under his pad and was pushed into the net by Tomas Tatar. There wasn’t much the big goaltender could do on the play, but the goal counted just the same.
From that point on, the game really turned into a goaltending battle. Again, Howard and Bishop matched each other save for save. There were odd-man rushes. There were quality opportunities. The goaltenders stood strong.
It was Bishop who would get the last laugh, though, as the Lightning broke the tie at 10:31 of the third period. Some nifty passing between Victor Hedman and Jonathan Drouin (get used to that, Bolts Nation) set up Alex Killorn for his 15th of the season. That assist, his second of the night, was Hedman's 37th point of the season. Among defensemen in the NHL, he ranks 24th in points scoring - don't forget that he's played ~20 fewer games than most of the league leaders. The big Swede also rocked a 69% Corsi rating at five-on-five on this occasion. He was better than fantastic.
Steven Stamkos followed that Killorn marker up with his 40th (!) of the season, an empty net goal scored with only 28 seconds left on the clock, to make it 3-1. This is the fourth time in his young career that Stamkos has reached the 40-goal plateau. And that’s all the Bolts needed to push themselves across the finish line.
With the win, the Lightning improve their record against the Red Wings this year to a still-perfect 3-0-0. When you consider that this team has been pretty darn good (read: unbeatable) when facing the Wings, Montreal Canadiens, and New York Rangers this season, it’s hard not to be excited. Regular season success ultimately means very little, but the guys know that they can beat the best teams in the East when they play their game. That confidence could serve them well starting next month.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.