RECAP: Red Wings ‘weather the storm’ to blank Lightning, 2-0, for second win in a row

DETROIT -- A week after falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning at AMALIE Arena, the Detroit Red Wings exacted revenge against their Atlantic Division rival by shutting them out, 2-0, at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night.

“It proves we can win games any way we need to right now,” said Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot, who stopped 28 shots for his second shutout of the season and 33rd of his NHL career. “We can put five or six on the board or we can make one hold up. That gives us a ton of confidence, especially against a team like that coming back from what they did to us in their building last week. It shows a lot of mental fortitude in our group right now, and you like to see that this time of the year in a game that we definitely needed.”

Blanking Tampa Bay (26-19-3; 55 points) was certainly big for Detroit (23-21-5; 51 points), which kept pace in the Eastern Conference standings on a day that the Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets, Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders all pocketed two points, and the Montreal Canadiens collected one.

“I thought we defended well,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “The penalty kill came up big and your goaltender has to be one of your better players most nights, and I thought [Talbot] was that tonight.”

At 8:34 of the first period, Talbot made a great glove save on Nikita Kucherov on a 2-on-1 rush with Jake Guentzel that kept things scoreless. That’s also how the frame concluded, with Detroit leading Tampa Bay, 13-7, in shots.

Marco Kasper kicked off the scoring with his seventh goal of the season at 9:55 of the second period, tipping in J.T. Compher’s shot while spinning near the crease to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead. Christian Fischer recorded the secondary assist on what proved to be the game-winning tally.

“Confidence always plays a big part, but we’ve been winning games,” said Kasper, who has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his last nine games. “I think that helps everybody on the team and gives everybody some confidence. The puck goes in, it’s always fun contributing in that way.”

After netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy, who finished with 29 saves, was pulled late in the third period, Michael Rasmussen scored an empty-net goal with 28 seconds remaining to hand Tampa Bay its first shutout loss since Nov. 14, 2023.

However, Rasmussen was tripped by Kucherov while speeding toward the empty net and exited the game after crashing into the cage.

“[Rasmussen] was getting looked at in the doctor’s office,” McLellan said. “I think things are okay from what I’ve been told so far.”

Registering the lone helper on Rasmussen’s seventh goal of the season was Albert Johansson, who also set NHL career highs in blocks (seven) and time on ice (20:49).

“That’s a team that’s got a winning pedigree,” Talbot said. “They know how to pull out these tight games. Kucherov’s sitting there with the puck, and he’s got options. You know he’s going to find somebody eventually, so I give the guys in front of me a ton of credit. We blocked a lot of shots from the top, did a great job boxing out and let me see most of the pucks tonight. Sometimes you just have to weather the storm and get a lucky bounce, and we did a little bit of all of that tonight.”

NEXT UP: Detroit will try to complete a sweep of its three-game homestand when the Colorado Avalanche visit Little Caesars Arena on Monday night.

POSTGAME QUOTES

McLellan on Talbot’s experience helping him navigate key moments on Saturday

“We were debating on who we were going to start. I’ve been around Talbs enough that he probably wanted this start after what happened in Tampa [last Saturday]. That wasn’t on him by any means, but he had a good game the other night. Just had a gut feeling this is what he wanted, and he got the opportunity and took advantage of it.”

Talbot on how he believes the club has changed since McLellan and assistant coach Trent Yawney arrived

“First and foremost, I think our PK has stepped up pretty big the last few games. Obviously, we tweaked that when [McLellan and Yawney] came in. It’s not always easy to change things on the fly, so we knew there was going to be some growing pains there, but I thought our penalty kill was outstanding tonight. Probably got us the win, especially against a power play like that.”

Kasper the experience of going against talented players like Kucherov

“I think you got to know who you play against out there. Kucherov is one of the best players in the league obviously, so you always got to watch out for him. He likes to be on that right side. You got to cover the open guys. He’s a really good passer, and I think that’s what we really tried to do. Just don’t give him too much time, because then he’s going to make plays around you.”