The last time the Red Wings rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win a series was the 1992 Norris Division Semifinals when they defeated the Minnesota North Stars in seven games.
Forward Justin Abdelkader said Detroit has proven it's capable of responding to high-pressure situations all season.
"We've been playing this way for the last 30 games of the season," Abdelkader said. "We've had to win and accumulate some points to get in the playoffs. The game to close a team out is always the hardest game to win and we're not going to make it easy on them."
If there's one thing the Red Wings can build on is that the series has been closer than the 3-1 advantage would indicate and believe they've outplayed the Lightning in 5-on-5 situations.
"I think we did a pretty good job in the home games," Red Wings forward Tomas Tatar said. "Special teams decided the last game so I'm pretty confident we're doing a good job keeping the action in their zone. It would be nice to score some more goals."
Though Tampa Bay has a distinct advantage, recent history has shown that 3-1 series leads are hardly safe. In the past three Stanley Cup Playoffs, a team has rallied from deficits of 3-1 or 3-0 to win the series four times.
When Lightning coach Jon Cooper was asked to rate the importance of clinching the series Thursday on a scale of 1-10, he quickly said 10.
"We're not trying to focus on getting extra rest, we just want to win hockey games," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "We have a chance to close it out but we expect them to be at their best. We want to come flying out of the gates but we have to expect the same from them."
Goalie Petr Mrazek will start his third straight game for the Red Wings. Mrazek shut out the Lightning in Game 5 of the 2015 first round.
Goalie Ben Bishop will start for Tampa Bay.
Here are the projected lineups:
RED WINGS
Gustav Nyquist - Henrik Zetterberg - Dylan Larkin
Darren Helm - Pavel Datsyuk - Brad Richards
Justin Abdelkader - Luke Glendening - Riley Sheahan
Andreas Athanasiou - Joakim Andersson - Tomas Tatar
Danny DeKeyser - Kyle Quincey
Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson
Brendan Smith - Mike Green
Petr Mrazek
Jimmy Howard
Injured: Alexey Marchenko (upper body), Drew Miller (knee), Johan Franzen (concussion)
Scratched: Xavier Ouellet, Tomas Jurco, Teemu Pulkkinen
LIGHTNING
Alex Killorn - Tyler Johnson - Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat - Valtteri Filppula - Jonathan Drouin
Cedric Paquette - Vladislav Namestnikov - Ryan Callahan
Brian Boyle - Mike Blunden
Victor Hedman- Matt Carle
Jason Garrison- Andrej Sustr
Braydon Coburn - Nikita Nesterov
Matt Taormina
Ben Bishop
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Injured: Anton Stralman (fractured left leg), Steven Stamkos (blood clot surgery), JT Brown (upper body)
Scratched: Jonathan Marchessault, Erik Condra
Status report: Marchenko participated in Detroit's morning skate but coach Jeff Blashill said he will not play Thursday. ...Cooper did not confirm he would suit up seven defensemen but Condra and Marchessault stayed on the ice after the rest of the Lightning wrapped up their morning skate. ...Blashill said he'll go with the same lineup as Game 4.
Who's hot: Kucherov had two goals and an assist in Game 4. … Tatar had an assist in Game 4 and leads the Red Wings with three in the series.
