Gourde scores twice, Lightning top Red Wings for 6th straight win

DETROIT -- Yanni Gourde scored twice for the Tampa Bay Lightning in their season-high sixth consecutive win, a 6-3 victory against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Friday.

“They came out flying in the first period, but we were able to make adjustments,” Gourde said. “We looked much better in the second. Our mentality has been defense first lately, and we’ve been executing defensively.”

Darren Raddysh had a goal and two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves for his sixth consecutive win for the Lightning (15-7-2), who are 14-3-0 in their past 17 games after a 1-4-2 start.

“I’m not really trying to step up on offense,” said Raddysh, who has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his past seven games. “I’m just playing my game. We’ve got a lot of guys who have been great while we’ve had guys hurt.”

Nikita Kucherov had two assists to extend his point streak to eight games (15 points; four goals, 11 assists), Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist, and Gage Goncalves and Brandon Hagel also scored for Tampa Bay.

“That was a pretty complete team effort,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “[Vasilevskiy] kept us close while we were shooting ourselves in the foot in the first period, and after we weathered that, we kind of took over from there.”

J.T. Compher and Michael Rasmussen each had a goal and an assist, and Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings (13-11-1), who have lost three straight and four of five (1-4-0) after going 3-0-1 in their previous four games. John Gibson made 22 saves.

“Our players care, there’s no question about it, but that only takes you so far,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “But we gifted them their second goal and the [fifth] one at 4-on-4. We’re not good enough to be giving stuff away for free.”

The Red Wings took a 1-0 lead at 11:29 of the first period when Compher put in Rasmussen’s pass from the corner.

The Lightning tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 17:07. Kucherov’s pass found Raddysh alone in the high slot, and his slap shot through traffic beat Gibson.

Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead 34 seconds into the second period when Goncalves beat Albert Johansson to a loose puck in the slot and put it past Gibson.

Gourde made it 3-1 at 3:01, chipping a rebound over Gibson, but Rasmussen took just 12 seconds to cut the margin to 3-2, tapping a rebound over the goal line at 3:13.

Gourde restored Tampa Bay’s two-goal lead at 16:09, scoring with a shot through traffic to make it 4-2, but Larkin cut the deficit to 4-3 at 18:26, putting a wrist shot from a sharp angle past Vasilevskiy from the left face-off circle.

“Todd talked a lot about netfront play in the last couple of days,” said Larkin, the Detroit captain. “And then we gave up two goals from the front of the net. Just about all of their goals were from chaos in front. We’re not winning those battles and it is frustrating.”

Gourde's two goals came after he had scored three in his first 23 games this season.

“I think our line was breaking out pretty well tonight,” he said. “I was just fortunate enough to put two in the back of the net.”

Guentzel made it 5-3 at 12:47 of the third period, tipping in Raddysh’s point shot with the teams playing at 4-on-4, and Hagel scored into an empty net at 17:13 to make it 6-3.

“Do we have enough talent?” McLellan asked. “Yes, I think we do. Are we playing well enough? No, we are not.”

NOTES: This was the third three-point game for Raddysh in his NHL career and second in the past two weeks; he had five assists in a 7-0 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 9, 2024, and a goal and two assists in a 5-1 win against the New Jersey Devils on Nov. 18. … Kucherov has 54 points (21 goals, 33 assists) in 41 games against the Red Wings. ... Tampa Bay has outscored its opponents 26-9 during its winning streak. ... Hagel has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in a four-game point streak. ... Alex DeBrincat's three-game goal streak ended for the Red Wings.