All it took was changing goalies, shuffling the defensemen and leaning on the fourth line, but it was enough for the Detroit Red Wings to get into their series against Tampa Bay.
Andreas Athanasiou (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)
Andreas Athanasiou scored his first career playoff goal at 12:42 of the second period from Tomas Tatar and Joakim Andersson to help lead Detroit to a 2-0 win for goalie Petr Mrazek’s third shutout in eight playoff games against the Lightning. Game 4 is at Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday night.
Andersson, who centers the fourth line, had his initial shot blocked away by Ben Bishop. Tatar picked up the loose puck and found Athanasiou in the coming around at the top the left circle. His one-time slap shot beat Bishop at the right post.
At 17:22 of the second period, Bishop’s aggressive nature in the crease may have worked against him. Brendan Smith teed up Mike Green for a one-timer from the top of the circle, but Green’s stick snapped. As Bishop aggressively moved for the puck, he made contact with Detroit’s Dylan Larkin. As the puck pinballed around the blue paint, Tampa Bay defenseman Jason Garrison poked the puck into Henrik Zetterberg’s right skate, which then hit his left skate and into the goal.
The league review of the goal determined that there was no distinct kicking motion by Zetterberg. Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper then initiated his coaches challenge, alleging the goaltender interference, but none was found on review.
The story of the game was Detroit’s defense. With Smith inserted into the lineup for Kyle Quincey, Detroit allowed only 16 shots on goal, none from the trio of Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov. Those three had combined for 15 points in the first two games of the series.
The game ended with another skirmish with Killorn going after Zetterberg, Dan Boyle and Justin Abdelkader squaring off with each other but with no punches being thrown. Game three was the 10th playoff game and 18th game overall since the start of the 2014-15 season between the organizations. If familiarity breeds contempt, the last four games will be hate-filled, and entertaining affairs.
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