In Tampa, Jakub Vrana hit for a pair of goals on Tuesday night, including the game-winner in the third period, and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Lightning, 4-3.
“He played as complete a hockey game as he’s played all year for us,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought he was excellent in every facet of the game. He checked great, he worked hard, he won battles, he was good on the wall.
“I think that’s a little personified by the breakaway goal. He does a good job defensively and then goes down and scores.”
Thomas Greiss made 38 saves in the Detroit win.
Ross Colton had a double for the Lightning.
“It’s one of those games that we clearly beat ourselves, and it’s becoming a little bit too much of our story ” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It was odd-mans, breakaways, turnovers … and it’s perplexing why some of these players that have been with us for a while, especially in game 76, are continuing to do this. It’s too bad.”
After Colton scored his first goal of the night, in the middle fame, , Detroit replied goals from Oskar Sundqvist , Vrana, and Lucas Raymond for a 3-1 lead.
Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov got one back for the Lightning to make the score, 3-2 to Detroit heading to the third.
Colton tied the game, 3-3, in the third, and Vrana hit his winner in the sixth minute of the frame.
“I’m trying to create offense here as much as possible to give the team a chance,” Vrana said. “There are things that we have to do to get those chances, and that’s what we did tonight. We put ourselves in a good position to win the game.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves in the Tampa loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.