In Detroit Friday, Nikita Kucherov scored with just over a minute left in extra time to send the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 2-1 win over the Red Wings.
“It’s so much on the line, it’s almost like you’re in the playoffs already,” Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman said. “It really is. You can see the fire in everybody and the
Andrei Vasilevskiy got the OT win for Tampa in Detroit Friday – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
hunger, everybody pulling the same way. It’s quite a beautiful thing.”
The win pushed the Bolts to within one point of the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Isles beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in a shootout, 4-3, on Friday.
The Lightning defeated the Bruins earlier in the week to help close the gap.
“You sit here and say every game’s a must-win, but let’s be honest: We don’t come out with four points in this, we’re in trouble,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
Henrik Zetterberg had the lone goal for the Red Wings who are now facing a post season that will be absent their presence.
Ondrej Palat scored in the third period for Tampa to force the extra session.
Andrei Vasilevskiy got the win on 29 saves.
WATCH: All Lightning vs. Red Wings highlights
Petr Mrazek took the loss on 30 saves.
“Not good enough, especially against a team playing a back-to-back. We’ve got to start off stronger. But I thought we got better as the game went. Obviously it was unfortunate we couldn’t get a power-play goal. That could be the difference in a game like tonight,” Detroit’s Justin Abdelkader said.
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