Burns: 3 Things we learned from another win over Detroit

The Tampa Bay Lightning have gone nearly three full seasons without losing to Atlantic Division rival Detroit.
The Lightning extended their incredible run against the Red Wings Saturday at AMALIE Arena, securing a 3-2 victory for their 14th win in a row over the men from Michigan. The last time the Bolts dropped a regular season game to the Red Wings, Ben Bishop was Tampa Bay's No. 1 goaltender and Brayden Point was plying his trade in the Western Hockey League with Moose Jaw.

Tampa Bay's 14-game regular season win streak versus Detroit is its longest against a single opponent in franchise history.
The Lightning kept the streak going Saturday thanks to a pair of goals from Nikita Kucherov, a stalwart defensive effort that limited the Red Wings to a scant few scoring chances and another sensational start in net by backup goalie Louis Domingue, who earned his 20th win of the season, the first time in his career reaching 20 wins.
The Lightning can complete the four-game regular season sweep of the Red Wings when they visit Detroit on Thursday, the second game in a two-game road trip for the Bolts.

1. BEST INDIVIDUAL SEASON IN LIGHTNING HISTORY
Nikita Kucherov can claim that title after scoring two goals Saturday night.
Kucherov recorded his 109th and 110th points of the season and to pass Vinny Lecavalier's 108-point season in 2006-07 for the most points in a single season in Lightning history.
Kucherov needed just 69 games to accomplish the feat and no doubt will set the bar sky high over the final 13 regular season games for the next single-season scoring challenger to overcome.
"It's special for me and my family definitely," Kucherov said of his accomplishment following the game. "I don't think many people believed in me, and I'm just trying to keep them wrong and just happy for myself. Thanks for the guys helping me out. Without them, I wouldn't have as much success. It's all the guys."
Kucherov is the first NHL player to reach the 110-point mark in a season since Vancouver's Henrik Sedin tallied 112 points during the 2009-10 season.
"He's a pretty incredible player," said Bolts defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who scored an early goal 3:06 into the game to push the Lightning in front 1-0. "We're pretty fortunate to have him as a part of our team. He broke the record there with the first one and in between the intermission we said might as well not stop now and sure enough he goes out and gets another one. That's the kind of player he's been this whole season, always wanting more, always trying to step up for us."
Kucherov's record-breaking marker came midway through the first period. Brayden Point was behind the net and found him wide open on the edge of the crease. The Russian right wing slammed the opportunity home with authority, the shot kissing off the post before hitting the back of the net.
That goal gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead.
With about six minutes remaining in regulation and the lead down to one, Kucherov gave the Lightning some breathing room after blasting a one-timer from the top of the right circle that beat Detroit goalie Jonathan Bernier to the upper corner of the far post for a 3-1 Tampa Bay advantage.
Kucherov is on pace to finish the regular season with 131 points, a pace that hasn't been seen in the NHL since 1995-96 when Mario Lemieux (161 pts.) and Jaromir Jagr (149 pts.) both topped the 130-point mark.
"To come in and be able to set records, he passed an icon in Vinny and there's no doubt it means something," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said of Kucherov's record. "Now, if you're going to sit here and say single season record or Stanley Cup, he's clearly grabbing the Stanley Cup. In regular season, there are individual awards and there's accolades like he did tonight. But usually when that happens it's because team's having success. When the team's having success, a big part of our team having success is what Kuch has done for us. So you like to see guys get rewarded for their efforts, especially with the season we're having. For him to do that, I know he's pretty pumped."

2. A RARE NIGHT AT HOME
Lightning goaltender Louis Domingue has been near-unbeatable at AMALIE Arena since arriving in Tampa Bay courtesy of a trade with Arizona on November 14, 2017, entering Saturday's game with a 10-2-0 record at the home rink.
The problem, however, is home starts are rare for Domingue.
Before getting the nod against Detroit at home, Domingue hadn't started a game at AMALIE Arena since December 10.
It took the Bolts backup some time to adjust, but once he did, he provided his team with another superb start, solidifying the Lightning's defensive effort in a 22-save performance that allowed him to collect his 20th win of the season.
"It was honestly weird," Domingue said about the rare home start. "When you play against dark jerseys for two or three straight months and then you've got to play against white, honestly I was losing guys on the ice early. The more the game went on, obviously our team played phenomenal. Five-on-five we didn't give anything up really. I think we got dangled a bit in the penalty department, but overall I think we played our best 5-on-5 game all year."
Domingue's top stop of the night came in the second period when the Lightning had to kill four Detroit power plays. Thomas Vanek got free in close and tried to squeeze a rebound into the net. Domingue, sitting on his butt from the initial shot, stuck his glove up to meet the Vanek's rebound attempt and was able to snag it out of the air while still seated.
Toward the end of the game with the Detroit net empty, a puck was sent in on Domingue's goal with seconds to play. Sensing an opportunity to score, Domingue lifted a return shot into the neutral zone and tried to roll the puck into the open net. The shot missed by a few feet, but Domingue said he'll keep firing away if giving the opportunity again.
"Oh yeah, I cleaned the front of my net, and I made sure my blade was nice and clean too. Maybe I should focus on stopping the puck," he joked.

3. BOUNCE-BACK EFFORT
One of the most incredible aspects of Tampa Bay's historic season is its ability to stop a losing skid before it gets started.
The Lightning have lost back-to-back games just twice this season and no more than two in a row. In games following a loss, the Bolts are 15-1-1 this season, including Saturday's victory over Detroit.
Tampa Bay got back to basics after a 3-0 defeat to Minnesota on Thursday. McDonagh said the team watched tape of the loss to the Wild and felt its execution was poor.
The Lightning cleaned up that aspect of their game in the one-goal win over the Red Wings.
"We had a lot of turnovers and weren't playing with structure, gave them a lot of time and space through the neutral zone," McDonagh said of the Minnesota loss. "Definitely needed to tighten things up tonight. We gave up two goals, but I think our chances against were for sure down compared to our last game. We didn't get as many goals to find the back of the net with the looks that we had, but we stayed with it and didn't get frustrated and didn't try and change our game because of it and found a way to get two points."
The fact the Lightning didn't waiver from their structure despite their relative lack of scoring chances is a very good sign for this team. There will be stretches in the playoffs when goals will be hard to come by. It'll be tempting for the team, especially one as gifted as the Lightning offensively, to try to sacrifice some of their defensive structure to generate more offense.
Typically, that sacrifice ends up with the puck in the back of the Bolts net.
The Lightning played a sound, solid defensive game for 60 minutes against Detroit, despite taking too many penalties in the first and second periods. Their willingness to stick to the game plan allowed them pull in front and stay there.
"Aside from taking all the penalties in those first two periods, which was a little tough, we really didn't give them much," Cooper said. "We finished that game out. It was unfortunate to give up that one at the end. The chances that we gave up against if you take away the power plays was what we really like to see. I thought we had a ton of good chances. Bernier was unreal tonight, but I just liked the way we played from start to finish albeit take out the penalties."