In Detroit, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning trailed 3-6 to the Red Wings on Thursday night in the third period.
No matter. the Lightning scored four straight goals including the game-winner in extra time to defeat the Wings, 7-6.
“To me, the right team won the game,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said.
Ondrej Palat‘s second goal of the game was winner for the Bolts.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves in the win.
Tyler Bertuzzi struck for four goals in the Detroit home opener. He scored his hat trick in the second period.
“It was great to be back out there and have the fans back in the building,” Bertuzzi said. “This is a tough loss. That’s a very good team, but we made too many mistakes.”
Ross Colton, Nikitaa Kucherov and Alex Killorn scored in a span of 3:58 in the third period to force the extra session.
“There’s a bit of a winning pedigree in that locker room, and they’ve shown that fight before,” Cooper said. “After what happened on opening night, it was paramount that we come away from this game with points.”
Steve Stamkos scored two power play goals for the Lightning.
“We could have easily quit on that game, being down multiple goals numerous times, but we didn’t give up and we got rewarded for it,” Stamkos said. “I don’t know to explain it. That was a weird game.”
Dylan Larkin and Vladimir Namestnikov added single markers for the Red Wings.
“Obviously when you’ve got a three-goal lead in the third period, it is really a gut punch to end up with a loss,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought we were going to find a way to finish off that game.”
Alex Nedeljkovic made 41 saves in the Detroit loss.
“It’s definitely tough. I thought we battled all the way to the end,” Bertuzzi said. “That’s a really good hockey team over there. I thought we played pretty good. It was back and forth. It was a good game. Couple of little mistakes that cost us, but overall I thought we worked hard and we played not bad. It was just a tough loss at the end.”
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