PREVIEW: Detroit looks to keep it going, concludes back-to-back set on Tuesday in Tampa Bay

TAMPA -- Out to sweep their back-to-back set in the Sunshine State, the Detroit Red Wings will play the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Tuesday night.

“They bring confidence here at home,” head coach Todd McLellan said of the Red Wings’ second Atlantic Divisional opponent in as many nights. “They have some size on the back end. They’re well coached. They have a lot of rehearsed breakouts and predictability in their game. They have four or five game breakers up front that constantly carry their team… We’ll have our hands full.”

Puck drop between Detroit (7-5-3; 17 points) and Tampa Bay (8-3-2; 18 points) is set for 7 p.m. ET, with broadcast coverage on Detroit SportsNet and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit). These Atlantic Division foes will meet again in 11 days, returning to Benchmark International Arena for the second of four matchups this season, with the third (Dec. 20) and fourth (Jan. 23) set for Little Caesars Arena.

The Red Wings snapped the Florida Panthers’ three-game winning streak less than 24 hours ago, a 5-3 victory at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday. Detroit’s offense spread the scoring across three periods: Carter Mazur notched his first career NHL goal in the first, Alex DeBrincat followed in the second, Justin Faulk and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård struck 45 seconds apart early in the third, and Emmitt Finnie sealed it with an empty-netter in the closing seconds.

“It was a big win for our hockey club,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “A good response after what happened against St. Louis, a good response after our team meeting and a good response in the third period when we had to buckle down and play with a little more detail and a little more drive. So, all those things were good…Against the boards and in front of the net, we were involved in it, and we did a good job of handling ourselves.”

According to Detroit’s bench boss, the turning point of Monday’s Atlantic Division clash was special teams. The Red Wings were 1-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

“We got an early kill, likely because of goaltending,” McLellan said. “We made some mistakes, but (Daniil) Tarasov made some real good saves. Obviously, the power-play goal to put us up in the third made a big difference and then to come back and score immediately after that again – we took a little momentum away from them and as a result, their third period probably wasn’t as effective as they would’ve liked.”

The Lightning haven’t played since Saturday, a 5-4 shootout loss to the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. They’re a perfect 6-0-0 at Benchmark International Arena this season and have outscored opponents 24-13 in those contests.

Nikita Kucherov leads Tampa Bay with 18 points (four goals, 14 assists), followed by Brandon Hagel with 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) and Jake Guentzel with 14 points (eight goals, six assists). Netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy has made 10 starts, posting a 6-3-1 record with a 3.00 goals-against average and .877 save percentage.

“We’re going to have to have good game-management skills,” McLellan said. “There was a big investment in last night’s game. Physically, both teams wore each other down. So, we’re going to get our rest during the day today and management the game well. We can’t afford to be wasting energy on sloppiness or poor details.”