The Tampa Bay Lightning pushed their win streak to six on Sunday night, as they beat the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 4-3 in a shootout. Two goals from captain Steven Stamkos ultimately helped to push the Bolts’s record to 11-3-1, which puts them squarely in first spot in the National Hockey League standings.
While they dominated even-strength possession from the start and did eventually secure their victory, the Lightning fell behind early thanks to a power play goal from Johan Franzen. A quick faceoff win led to a Franzen one-timer, which beat Ben Bishop with ease only four seconds into the man-advantage opportunity.
Being down early and having played the night before in Columbus could have proven to be a bad combination for the Bolts, but they battled back before that first period came to an end. Steven Stamkos answered with a power play goal of his own at the 12:53 mark of the opening frame, as he blasted the puck past Jimmy Howard with what can only be described as a bomb of a shot.
Stamkos followed up on his first period marker with an early second period goal. A beautiful deke move stunted Detroit’s defense and gave the captain time to fling the puck past Howard with vicious velocity. The officials didn’t call it a goal initially, but a review at the next stoppage in play clearly showed that the puck had crossed the line. It’s hard to blame the referees on that one; can you see a bullet traveling in mid-flight?
That 2-1 lead turned into a 3-1 lead only minutes later when Tyler Johnson one-timed home his fifth goal of the season. After missing a glorious opportunity moments prior, Johnson took an Ondrej Palat feed and shot it past Howard for the score.
Holding on to a two goal lead midway through the second period, the Lightning looked fairly comfortable. That was until Darren Helm scored his first goal of the season, another power play tally, at the 11:37 mark. That goal was arguably Detroit’s biggest of the evening, as it brought the game back within reach just as it looked as though the Lightning were going to run away with things. Tampa’s brutal penalty kill hurt them on two occasions on Saturday, and truly did everything it could to give the Wings life.
Wunderkind Gustav Nyqvist knotted things up at three just about nine minutes into the third period with his eighth of the season. That’s when viewers got the feeling that Tampa, on the second half of a back-to-back set, was going to tire out. A tie game, late in the third period, against a divisional opponent isn’t the easiest thing to handle even when fully rested. That the Lightning were able to nurse it into the extra frame and eventually a shootout was a small miracle.
As alluded to in that last sentence, the overtime frame solved nothing and so a shootout was needed. An early goal from Ryan Callahan, who assisted on both of Stamkos’s goals in regulation, gave the Bolts the early advantage in the cocktail hour. Ben Bishop stoned Gustav Nyqvist, Tomas Tatar, and Darren Helm in succession to seal the deal on the 4-3 Lightning win.
Moving on from the boxscore-like recap, here are some observations:
1) I mentioned possession earlier in the blog, but a visual should help to illustrate just how good the Lightning were in that department. At even strength, Detroit struggled to keep up. The Bolts were dominant.
That's a game a good team should win. That's a game Tampa did win. 5v5 Corsi chart courtesy of @HockeyStatsCa. pic.twitter.com/X928enKAkx
— Michael Stuart (@hockeybuzzstu) November 10, 20142) We were all waiting for Steven Stamkos to break out. And he did exactly that. Not only did he score two classic Stamkos goals, but he was also flying even when he wasn’t scoring. That, if you ask me, is as good as he’s looked all year. Even his teammates were wowed.
Johnson said it might have been Stamkos' best game: "You try not to be a spectator, but you end up falling in that category for sure."
— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) November 10, 20143) How good has Ryan Callahan been for the Lightning this year? He added two more assists last night, and now has 11 points in 10 games. That’s as many points as he had with the Bolts to end last season… in half the number of games. He’s done everything that’s been asked of him and more. Cooper can put him anywhere in the lineup, and there’s never any doubt that he’ll be effective. His shootout dangle was pretty nifty too.
GIF: Ryan Callahan's game-winning shootout goal. #TBLvsDET http://t.co/ei9CNSjJNA
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) November 10, 20144) Ben Bishop was okay against the Wings, but far from perfect. The second goal, Darren Helm’s power play marker, was particularly stinky. Bad goals happen in the NHL; that’s not exactly breaking news. What has to be concerning for the Bolts, however, is the fact that Bishop seems to be allowing bad goals with some regularity.
Ben has been good for one of those a night lately and that's alarming
— Bryan (@ctheory) November 10, 20145) Tops in the NHL standings. That is all.
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Sitting atop the NHL standings right now is a great place to be. It wouldn’t have been possible without a win over the Detroit Red Wings. The Lightning will get another stiff test on Tuesday, as they’ll be in Chicago for a contest with the Blackhawks. If you look up ‘measuring stick game’ in the dictionary, you’ll see Tuesday’s game listed as the definition.
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.