Trending: Lightning best Red Wings, 6-5, in a shootout

DETROIT -- Almost is never an encouraging word in professional sports.
You either win or lose, there is nothing in between.

So despite getting a point in Tuesday's 6-5 shootout loss to Tampa Bay at Little Caesars Arena, Detroit felt empty after the game.
Twice in the contest, the Wings squandered two-goal leads and when they were clinging to a one-goal lead with a little more than five minutes to go in the third, they surrendered a shorthanded goal which tied the game, 5-5.
It was that type of oddball game in which the Red Wings seemed to have it under control, only to have a deep and talented Lightning squad continually press the issue which eventually led to Tampa's one-goal victory.
Frans Nielsen (hat trick) and Gustav Nyquist (two goals) were Detroit's goal scorers.
Mathieu Joseph (two goals), Steve Stamkos, J.T. Miller and Cedric Paquette (shorthanded) lit the lamp for the Lightning.
Nikita Kucherov's tally won it for Tampa in the shootout.
Of the 10 goals scored in regulation, only one had two assists.
Nyquist's second goal of the game at 4:06 of the third, which gave the Wings a 5-3 lead, was assisted by Dylan Larkin and Justin Abdelkader.
Lightning goalie Eddie Pasquale made his NHL debut and the 28-year-old picked up his first career win, despite stopping only 19 of the 24 shots he faced for a save percentage of .792.
With the loss, the Red Wings stand at 12-12-4 on the year. Tampa improves to 21-7-4.
Up next for the Wings is a Thursday encounter with the Maple Leafs in Toronto. The Lightning begin a four-game home stand on Thursday when they entertain the Boston Bruins.
1. Frans Nielsen: Until the Wings played in Boston Saturday night, Nielsen was mired in the longest season-opening goal drought of his career, playing 21 games without a goal. After getting the game winner in Boston, Nielsen got a boost of confidence. Although he did not score Sunday against Colorado -- no Wings player did -- Nielsen kept that confidence. Just 21 seconds after Nyquist scored, Tyler Johnson tried to clear the puck out of his zone and it went off Andreas Athanasiou's skate to Nielsen in the right circle and Nielsen didn't miss. In the second period, right after the Lightning tied the game at 2-2, Nielsen got his second goal of the night, scoring at 13:33 from the left circle. Luke Witkowski got the lone assist. After Stamkos once again evened the score, Nielsen put the Wings up, 4-3, at 16:26 of the second. It was Nielsen's second career hat trick. The last one came when he was a member of the New York Islanders, playing the Dallas Stars on Oct. 25, 2014. The last Wings player to score a hat trick was Tomas Tatar on Dec. 17, 2016, against the Anaheim Ducks. Nielsen, the NHL's all-time leader in shootout goals, went first but Pasquale made the save. Nielsen finished with 26 shifts for 17:11, had four shots, one hit, one takeaway, was plus-2 and won 6-of-11 face-offs.

Quotable: "Most of them in the right spot there at least on two of them they came right to me all alone in front of the net, so I've been struggling with that (scoring) a little bit this year, it's always nice when you get a few." -- Nielsen
Quotable II: "He was all over the place, I thought playing great on the defensive side as he always does. It's nice to see him get rewarded, too. He's one of those guys that always does it right out there. Regardless of the score of the game, he always does his work. So it's nice to see him get rewarded." -- Niklas Kronwall
Quotable III: "He's been playing great all season long. It just goes in ebbs and flows with the goals. He gets one in Boston and now he gets three tonight. Great for him. He deserves it. He's been in this league for a long time and he doesn't get stressed about that stuff. He just sticks with it and plays the right way, Finally he's gonna get rewarded." -- Nyquist
2. Gustav Nyquist: With Anthony Mantha out with a hand injury and Tyler Bertuzzi out due to suspension, Nyquist moved up to the top line with Dylan Larkin and Justin Abdelkader. At 16:54 of the first period, Nyquist made a great individual effort to not only steal the puck and get it in the offensive zone, but was ready when the puck came back to him from Larkin. At 4:06 of the third period, Larkin found Nyquist in the left circle and Nyquist beat Pasquale once again, giving the Wings a brief two-goal lead. Nyquist also scored in the shootout. In 23 career games against the Lightning, Nyquist has eight goals and seven assists. Nyquist finished with 29 shifts for 21:36, had a team-high seven shots, was plus-1 and 2-for-2 on face-offs.

Quotable: "We'd change it if we knew. I thought we played a pretty good game. We gave them a hard game tonight. Come to the shootout, and we get a chance four-on-three in the overtime. The shootout's a coin flip. It can go either way. I don't know. It's tough to say but we should have finished this one off tonight." -- Nyquist on Wings' lack of success against Lightning
Quotable II: "It's nice to see him score. He's been putting up a lot of points, not necessarily a ton of goals. So it was nice to see him get a few tonight and he probably had some other chances, too, that could have gone in as well." -- Kronwall
3. Andreas Athanasiou: At 6:45 of the third period with the Red Wings up by two goals, speedster Athanasiou appeared to have a clean-cut breakaway on the Lightning net until he was hooked down to the ice by Alex Killorn. The fans erupted, anticipating a penalty shot but became dismayed and angry when the referee called Athanasiou for embellishment. So the Red Wings were shorthanded, a puzzled-looking Athanasiou skated into the box as multiple replays showed Killorn was the culprit, not Athanasiou. It was a critical call and energized the Lightning, who fought back to tie the score.

Quotable: "Of course, we might be biased. We see it from one side. The referee thought he went down a little too easy and embellished a little bit. It all depends on what side of the fence you're on. The refs, they're trying to do their work, they're doing whatever they can to be as good as possible. You got to have a lot of respect for what they do. That's how it goes sometimes." -- Kronwall
Quotable II: "I thought there was going to be a penalty shot (for AA). When you're going to go on a breakaway - he must have called diving, right? - when you're going to go on a breakaway you don't dive, do you? No chance. He literally was on a breakaway. I don't know how you dive when you're on a breakaway. I disagree with the call." -- Wings coach Jeff Blashill