Red Wings-Lightning Tweetcap: Gibson, Larkin, ASP, OT, oh my!

The Detroit Red Wings hoped to add to the Tampa Bay Lightning’s misery on Friday night, with Detroit aiming to earn a fourth straight win at the expense of the mighty Bolts, who boasted a 1-2-and-1 record heading into Friday night’s game.

Despite Lucas Raymond’s absence, the Red Wings machine was firing on all cylinders as the Wings hosted the second game of a three-game home stand, with the Edmonton Oilers still set to visit on Sunday afternoon.

On Friday night, well…

This one was a wild one, and a weird one, all at the same time. Detroit out-shot Tampa Bay 12-6 in the 1st period and 10-5 in the 2nd period, with Axel Sandin Pellikka scoring his first NHL goal at 13:02 of the 1st, from Larkin and Appleton…

But Tampa Bay out-shot Detroit 20 to 6 in the 3rd period, and J.J. Moser scored at 16:17 to tie the game 1-1.

Both teams headed to overtime with a point, and by the end of the 3rd period, John Gibson had stopped 27 of 28 shots against…

But in overtime, after the Bolts endlessly cycled back out to center to regroup and regroup again, Dylan Larkin took a loose puck from a Bolt, raced up the gut, and fired home the game-winner at 3:36 of overtime, finishing off a 2-point performance in fine fashion.

Detroit won 2-1 in overtime.

PREGAME: The Lightning lost the services of Nikita Kucherov just prior to the game due to an illness, and that at least could change the result…

The Red Wings hit the ice at Little Caesars Arena at 6:30 PM for warmups:

The Red Wings and Lightning posted their respective lines:

1ST PERIOD: The Red Wings and Lightning dressed the following starters and lineups:

Tampa and Detroit exchanged chances over the first 4 minutes of the 1st period, but Detroit led 5-0 in shots by 4:24 of the 1st.

7:01 in, the Red Wings led 6-0 in shots and 9-3 in attempts.

PENALTY: Jacob Bernard-Docker got tagged for high-sticking at 8:53 of the 1st period, affording Tampa Bay the game’s first power play. 2-minute penalty.

Tampa Bay didn’t earn a single shot on its power play. Detroit led 7-0 in shots, and Bernard-Docker came out of the box and chipped and changed easily.

Detroit ended up leading in shot attempts 13-4 at the second TV timeout some 11:39 into the 1st.

GOAL: At 13:02 of the 1st period, Axel Sandin Pellikka walked the blueline laterally, chipped a shot on goal, and the puck flickered off Brandon Hagel’s stick and into the net over Andrei Vasilevsky’s blocker.

TAMPA BAY 0, DETROIT 1: Sandin Pellikka (1) scored from Dylan Larkin (4) and Mason Appleton (1) at 13:02.

Meanwhile…

Detroit continued to press as the 15-minute mark passed, with Rasmussen stealing a puck as the Bolts changed, and Vasilevskiy had to make a smart stop to keep the Wings from taking a 2-0 lead.

John Gibson also made a fine save on shot #2, when Anthony Cirelli tipped a shot into Gibson from the slot, only 10 feet out from the net.

Tampa did generate 6 total shots in the 1st, so they cranked things up a bit as the 1st period wound down, but the Wings held tough, and Gibson looked strong.

2ND PERIOD:

Detroit led in shots 12-6, but Tampa Bay accumulated 17 attempts over the last 6 or so minutes of the 1st period, so Detroit had to bear down…

PENALTY: And Axel Sandin Pellikka got tagged for delay of game only 21 seconds into the 2nd period, not helping things.

Tampa was energetic on the power play, and Hedman hit the outside of the goalpost on a slapper from the point; Detroit’s PK unit also got caught out on a really long second shift, but the Wings escaped damage.

Remarkably, Albert Johansson and Simon Edvinsson got caught out on the ice for 2:30, and off an icing call against, Johansson completed a speedy end-to-end rush.

PENALTY: Yanni Gourde kept punching at Andrew Copp, and as the Bolts tried to rough up Detroit, Gourde sat for roughing at 5:09.

The Red Wings utilized their first unit of Seider, Kane, DeBrincat, Larkin and van Riemsdyk, but the Bolts did a very good job of stifling that unit;

Kasper, Compher, Copp, Sandin Pellikka and Brandsegg-Nygard found themselves in tough as well, and the power play didn’t get anything done.

Tampa was roughing the Wings up a bit–on the PP, Gourde smashed ASP into the back boards–and after the power play expired, Moritz Seider was pitchforked into the goalpost head-first by Goncalves, staying down for a minute before popping up to his knees and yelling at the ref for a non-call.

The game settled into dueling rushes for a bit, but the Red Wings did a good job of keeping Tampa to the perimeter for the most part, and again, while Tampa tried to rough up Detroit from time to time, the Wings didn’t bite.

PENALTY: Being a young player can be dangerous, however, and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard got caught with a free hand grab on Brayden Point at 15:16, affording Tampa Bay a 3rd power play.

PENALTY: After a good PK, Moritz Seider drew a slashing minor on Anthony Cirelli at 17:28 of the 2nd period.

The Wings’ first unit came out, got some motion going, but didn’t get many shots off; the same was true for the second unit, and the fact that Tampa was winning faceoffs more often than not didn’t help.

3RD PERIOD: The first couple of minutes of the 3rd period were very sloppy–by both sides–and it was a real toss-up as to whether either team would seize momentum.

Of all people, Alex DeBrincat made a great set of backchecking plays to stifle a 4-on-2, and then John Gibson made a strong stop with his right pad to stifle Jake Guentzel at 3:30 of the 3rd.

PENALTY: Connor Geekie got tagged for delay of game at 4:04 of the 3rd, flickering the puck over the glass under pressure from Michael Brandsegg-Nygard.

The power play was defended against superbly by Tampa, which gave the Wings some heart-pounding worries on the counter-attack.

Gibson had to squeeze a puck between his legs to prevent it from going in 7:23 into the 3rd, and Tampa was really out-classing Detroit, which looked a bit gassed. Tampa was out-shooting Detroit 5-1 some 7:23 into the 3rd.

John Gibson, to his credit, was making some sound stops, and his wide butterfly sealed off the bottom of the net superbly well.

Gibson made an AMAZING set of stops with the Bolts attacking the crease at 10:42, getting help from Axel Sandin Pellikka–who may have put his hand on the puck in the crease–in order to stifle the Bolts’ 10th and 11th shots of the period.

Detroit was trailing in shots 11-2 with 9:18 left in regulation time.

That deficit went down to SIXTEEN TO THREE by the 13:41 mark of the 3rd, with Gibson making some amazing stops with little help from his defense, which had afforded Tampa a red carpet toward the net up the slot.

GOAL: Sadly, Tampa Bay racked up its first goal on its 28th shot against the Red Wings’ goaltender, who saw absolutely nothing of the bouncing shot from J.J. Moser at 16:17.

TAMPA BAY 1, DETROIT 1. Moser (1) from Hedman (4) and Geekie (1) at 16:17 3rd.

Detroit ultimately got out-shot 19-6 and got out-faceoffed by a bit.

OVERTIME:

Tampa endlessly swooped back and regrouped at center ice, and they nearly gave it to the Wings in a big way, but instead, a mistake by the Bolts yielded Dylan Larkin RACING in ALONE vs. Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Larkin BLASTED a 2-1 goal through Vasilevskiy to win the game.

GOAL: Dylan Larkin unassisted at 3:36 of OT.

TAMPA BAY 1, DETROIT 2. Larkin (3) at 3:36.

Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!