Sluggish start too much to overcome for Red Wings in loss to Lightning
· Yahoo Sports
TAMPA, FL – Nothing, at first, went right for the Detroit Red Wings. They couldn't win a faceoff, and therefore never had the puck. They couldn't get out of their zone. One of their teammates left with an injury.
It took until the second period on for the Wings to show signs of life as they played for the second straight night against an Atlantic Division rival, this time the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 2. The Wings had more shots on net in the third period than in their first two combined as they pushed and pushed at the Lightning.
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The Wings came up just short, but showed resilience and fight in the 4-2 loss after struggling through the first half.
Goaltender John Gibson left after the first period with a lower-body injury, replaced by Daniil Tarasov. Lucas Raymond scored for the third time in four games to narrow a three-goal deficit and J.T. Compher converted on a power play to make it a one-goal game early in the third period.
Tarasov was pulled with about three minutes to go for an extra attacker. Ryan McDonagh scored an empty-netter with six-tenths of a second second left.
Who played
The Wings naturally went with the same lineup that won in Florida, save the change in goal. Emmitt Finnie centered Alex DeBrincat and Viktor Arvidsson, Andrew Copp was with Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Raymond, J.T. Compher with Michael Rasmussen and John Leonard, and Sheldon Dries with Carter Mazur and Keegan Kolesar.
On the back end, Moritz Seider paired with Ben Chiarot, Justin Faulk with William Wallinder, and Anton Johansson with Andreas Englund.
Nate Danielson and Jacob Bernard-Docker were scratched.
Lightning strikes
The Wings fell behind while Seider was serving a penalty for interference. Brayden Point had the puck high in Detroit's zone and passed to Charle-Edouard D'Astous to the left. He found Nikita Kucherov in the right circle, who in turn made quick work of setting up Point for a 1-0 lead at 7:54, a minute into the Lightning's power play.
On the second goal, Kucherov swung out from the corner and into the right circle before sending a short pass to Point, who fired a shot through a mass of bodies to make it 2-0 at 13:01. Gibson didn't stand a chance to see it.
The score reflected how much the Wings struggled in the period: They had only two shots (to Tampa's 12) and none in the last 11 minutes.
Anthony Cirelli pulled the Lightning ahead by three goals at 8:41 of the second period.
Signs of life
Raymond pumped a bit of life into the Wings midway through the game when he drew two defenders with him around the back of Tampa's net, dropping a pass for Compher. Raymond strode into the left circle as Compher passed the puck back to Raymond, who bested Andrei Vasilevskiy, at 10:23. That was the Wings' fourth shot of the game.
Compher scored at 5:29 of the third period on a tic-tac-toe play that saw the puck go from a Faulk pass from up top to Copp in the right circle to Compher as he slid into the circle and snapped the puck into the net, aided by Rasmussen screening Vasilevskiy. The goal came during the first of three straight Detroit power plays.
Compher went 13 games before scoring his first goal this season and now has two in the past three games.
Next up: Knight time is the right time?
After opening October with seven of eight games at home, the Wings open November with six of seven on the road. The lone stop at Little Caesars Arena for the first two weeks of the month? Their game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday (7 p.m., Detroit SportsNet). The Knights – who finished last season two wins short of the second Stanley Cup in nine seasons of existence – are back at it in Year 10 under new coach Ryan Craig, entering Tuesday’s late game at second in the Pacific Division with 20 points (9-5-2). The coach is new (after getting a promotion from the Knights’ AHL squad), but the top scorers are pretty familiar, with Jack Eichel topping Vegas with 20 points and captain Mark Stone’s 10 goals pacing the roster.
Contact Helene St. James at [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Sluggish start too much to overcome for Red Wings in loss to Lightning