In Tampa, Thomas Greiss made 27 saves. and got offensive support from the Detroit Red Wings’ skaters in a 5-1 win over the Lightning on Sunday.
“Honestly the past record … if [the media] didn’t tell us we would have no idea to be dead honest with you,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “But certainly we haven’t beat these guys much. Having success against them certainly feels good, especially the fact they are as good of a team as they are and the defending Stanley Cup champions.
“At the end really, for me it’s about playing the right way and how the process of it went and I thought our process was good.”
Valtteri Filppula, Michael Rasmussen and Marc Staal scored in a second period outburst for Detroit.
“We played well from the start and Greiss was great again,” Rasmussen said. “Everyone just played well. We clogged up the neutral zone pretty good and stuck to our system. We can play with whoever as long as we’re playing our game and everyone is on the same page and working hard.”
Victor Hedman was the lone goal scorer for the Bolts.
“We’re learning the lesson of how important every detail is in our game and how important it is to be in that structure for 60 minutes and not let our guard down at any point in the game,” the Lightning’s Ryan McDonagh said. “It felt like we had good control of the game. We hadn’t scored but it was 1-0 halfway through the second and we just let a few minutes in the game snowball into a big hole.”
Dylan Larkin got the Detroit offense rolling with a goal in the first period for a 1-0 lead.
“We played a really good game, we didn’t give them much,” Greiss said. “We played tight in the neutral zone, we played a hard-checking game. Lot of blocks, solid [defensemen], they were unreal. Our PK, a lot of blocked shots. Just commitment and battle.”
Darren Helm added an empty-net goal in the 15th minute of the third period for the final, 5-1.
“[The win is] huge, everyone knows they won a Stanley Cup and they are one of the top teams in the League,” Greiss said. “It’s always special to beat those kinds of guys.”
Christopher Gibson made 13 save in the loss.
“Everybody likes to score, and when you’re used to scoring and you don’t, it gets a little uncomfortable,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Then you start taking shortcuts thinking you can give yourself a better opportunity to score. The only way you can do it is to work your way out of it.
“Eventually pucks that might not go in will start going in. It’s the cycle of hockey and we just have to work our way through this.”
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