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Bruins vs Red Wings

Lightning aim to stay the course in Game 3

Tuesday, 04.21.2015 / 2:46 PM

By Paul Harris - NHL.com Correspondent / Lightning-Red Wings series blog

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Lightning-Red Wings series blog
Lightning aim to stay the course in Game 3

DETROIT -- The Tampa Bay Lightning want to continue playing the same way they did in the first two games of their Eastern Conference First Round series against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 3 on Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVA Sports, SN, FS-F, FS-D).

The series is tied 1-1 but Tampa Bay has outplayed Detroit and has a 76-38 shots advantage for the first two games.

"We played some good hockey back in Tampa. Now we have to come here and play the same way," Lightning center Tyler Johnson said. "If we keep doing what we've been doing the first two games, playing our game and playing our style, it will be a positive."

Johnson had two goals in Tampa Bay's 5-1 win in Game 2.

"My linemates, they're playing well and we're playing well as a unit. The first two games our team played real well," Johnson said.

Johnson centers the Lightning's second line, which many considered the best second line in the NHL during the regular season. Tampa Bay's fourth line of Brian Boyle between Brenden Morrow and J.T, Brown has also played well in the first two games. Boyle had a shorthanded goal in Game 1, a 3-2 loss.

"If you talk about Boyle's line, they're a pain in the butt," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "They understand what their job is. Their goal is to get the puck from one end of the ice to the other end of the ice and keep it there."

Goalie Ben Bishop made 11 saves in Game 1 and 23 saves on 24 shots in Game 2.

"Ben has that ability, that's why he's a starting goalie, to bounce back," Cooper said. "When he has had a bad game, he puts up a wall and shuts it down."

Here are the projected lineups:

LIGHTNING

Alex Killorn - Steven Stamkos - Ryan Callahan

Ondrej Palat - Tyler Johnson - Nikita Kucherov

Vladislav Namestnikov - Valtteri Filppula - Cedric Paquette

Brenden Morrow - Brian Boyle - J.T. Brown

Victor Hedman - Andrej Sustr

Nikita Nesterov - Anton Stralman

Matt Carle - Braydon Coburn

Ben Bishop

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Scratched: Mark Barberio, Jonathan Drouin

Injured: Jason Garrison (upper body)

RED WINGS

Justin Abdelkader - Henrik Zetterberg - Gustav Nyquist

Darren Helm - Pavel Datsyuk - Tomas Tatar

Joakim Andersson - Riley Sheahan - Tomas Jurco

Drew Miller - Luke Glendening - Landon Ferraro

Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson

Danny DeKeyser - Kyle Quincey

Brendan Smith - Marek Zidlicky

Petr Mrazek

Jimmy Howard

Scratched: Stephen Weiss, Teemu Pulkkinen, Daniel Cleary, Jakub Kindl, Alexey Marchenko

Injured: Erik Cole (spinal contusion)

Status report: Garrison has been skating with the Lightning and could return for Game 4 on Thursday.

Who's hot: Johnson had two goals in Game 2. Nesterov has a goal and two assists in the first two games.

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