Red Wings lose to Lightning, seventh straight to start season

TAMPA-- The Detroit Red Wings lost a seventh straight game to start a season for the first time, 3-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Luke Glendening scored for Detroit (0-5-2). The longest the Red Wings have gone without their first win is nine games (1985-86; 0-8-1 (tie).
"It's not fun, that's for sure, we've just got to keep moving along," Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard said. "We battled for 60 minutes, we didn't get the outcome that we wanted, but it's a lot better effort than the last couple of games."
WATCH: [All Red Wings vs. Lightning highlights]
Steven Stamkos scored his first goal of the season, and Brayden Point and Alex Killorn scored for the Lightning (4-1-0), who have won 12 consecutive regular-season games against the Red Wings. The last time Tampa Bay lost to Detroit was Nov. 3, 2015.
"We had to make sure we got off to a good start ... I don't care who you're playing, you get four out of five, you've got to be really happy with that," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We've been home a long time, we've enjoyed it. We did what we had to do, now we have to go do it on the road."

Stamkos made it 2-1 at 15:19 of the second period when he sent a wrist shot past Howard on the stick side. It was Stamkos' first goal in 17 regular-season games, dating to March 3, 2018 against the Philadelphia Flyers.
"It's always nice to get your first of the year, get it going, but just happy to contribute in the win," Stamkos said. "4-1 on the homestand is definitely good, to be honest it should have been 5-0 (Tampa Bay lost its second game, 4-1 to the Vancouver Canucks)."
Point gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 7:33 of the first period after a centering pass from Yanni Gourde went off his skate.
Glendening tied it 1-1 at 6:20 of the second period following up a shot by Trevor Daley.
"We can't have a mindset that we're comfortable losing," Daley said. "We've got a ways to go. We have to find ways to get better ... execution, attention to detail ... we're good at times but we have to be good all the time to win in this league."

Killorn scored an empty-net goal with 1:07 left in the third period to make it 3-1.
Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for the Lightning; Howard made 28.
"I thought we played well, huge [penalty kill]," Vasilevskiy said. "I think the guys did a good job."

They said it

"I thought tonight was much better and much more the way that we need to play and the way that played earlier in the season. I still think we're passing up chances to shoot the puck and eliminate scoring chances. We have to get that figured out." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"You look at the end result and that's what we came here for. If there's one thing that's probably a little bit of a red flag right now it's the alarming number of penalties we're taking (five on Thursday). Our penalty kill has done a phenomenal job this year but you can't keep putting them to the test." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Need to know

Stamkos became the third Lightning player to score at least 50 game-winning goals, joining Martin St. Louis (64) and Vincent Lecavalier (60). ... The Lightning are the only NHL team that hasn't given up a power-play goal this season (23-for-23). ... Lightning forward Ryan Callahan had a shot on goal and three hits in 11:03 of ice time in his season debut after offseason shoulder surgery.

What's next

Red Wings: At the Florida Panthers on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; FS-F, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Lightning: At the Minnesota Wild on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-WI, SUN, NHL.TV)