TAMPA BAY -- The Detroit Red Wings know they can’t let a 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at AMALIE Arena on Saturday night linger because in about 24 hours, they’ll be dropping the puck against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.
“Obviously, learn from this one,” Patrick Kane said. “I’m sure we’ll go over some things, and got to get right back at it tomorrow. I guess that’s the best part about it, right? You get another chance tomorrow.”
Between the pipes for Detroit (21-20-4; 46 points), Cam Talbot made 11 saves in two periods before being replaced by Alex Lyon, who stopped all six shots he faced in the final frame. Netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside 39 shots for Tampa Bay (25-16-3; 53 points).
“I thought we were in position a lot of times to prevent, and we just didn’t do our work,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “Say you’re at your desk, but you’re not working. Then, you’re useless. It’s one thing being there. It’s the other thing getting the job done, and we didn’t do it.”
Just 2:02 into the game, Brayden Point gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead when he backhanded a rebound in tight after Emil Lilleberg’s point shot bounced right to him off the back boards.
“That kind of set the tone for us,” Lucas Raymond said about the Lightning’s first goal. “[Defense] is a huge part of our game, right? Didn’t get it done tonight.”
The Red Wings couldn’t cash in on two power-play chances by the time the first period finished, but held a 13-6 edge in shots.
Before the four-minute mark of the second period, the Lightning had jumped out to a 4-0 advantage. Jake Guentzel scored a power-play goal just 16 seconds into the frame, then Nikita Kucherov lit the lamp only 94 seconds later. Then a goal from Mitchell Chaffee, a Grand Rapids, Mich., native, at 3:58 extended Tampa Bay’s lead even further.
“They scored on their opportunities,” McLellan said about the Lightning’s four quick goals to open the middle frame. “They did a real good job of creating them. The power-play goal 12 seconds in, that doesn’t help. We were in the penalty box before the puck even hit the ice, so a little careless and not something we wanted to do.”
Getting Detroit on the board shortly after the halfway point of the second period with a power-play goal, Raymond buried Kane’s pass with a one-time shot from the left face-off circle to make it 4-1 at 14:12. The secondary assist on Raymond’s 19th goal of the season went to Moritz Seider.