In Detroit Tuesday night, Petr Mrazek made 22 saves to earn his first post season shutout in a 3-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
With the win, the Wings take a 2-1 lead in their series with the Bolts.
“I thought we skated and looked like a real hockey team. I didn’t think we had skated the way we were capable of skating,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “I didn’t think we made their [defensemen] skate the way they should have in the first couple of games, and I think those things happened tonight.”
Detroit got goals from Pavel Datsyuk, Riley Sheahan and Luke Glendening to support Mrazek’s shutout bid.
“Huge win for our team,” Mrazek said. “First game at home (in this series), first win (at home in this series), but it’s over now and we look (toward) Thursday now.”
For Tampa, Ben Bishop made 18 saves in the loss.
Justin Abdelkader returned to the Red Wings’ lineup Tuesday after an injury kept him off the ice.
“Any time you’re out for any amount of time, over a week, I think you’re going to feel winded, but the good thing is with the injury, I could still skate and keep my legs and that was huge,” Abdelkader said. “I think that went a long ways into helping me feel pretty good out there tonight.”
The Lightning were blaming bounces for the Red Wings early goal.
“They got an extremely fortunate bounce on the first goal. It’s the only bounce they got,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “They didn’t need any more. We didn’t get bounces.”
Bounces or not, the Lightning could not solve Mrazek who made some spectacular saves especially in the second period when he saved one shot off his mask.
“We were happy with the way we played and we were a little more consistent,” Sheahan said. “We generated some more chances in the [offensive] zone, so we were happy with that. Mrazek played a good game for us, and our defense was solid.”
Tampa’s woes on the road in the regular season have now extended to the post season. They will need to find some solution for game four or head home in a deep hole.
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