@jayRecher
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Jakub Vrana scored a pair of goals & Thomas Greiss made 38 saves as the visiting Detroit Red Wings defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.
Vrana's second goal came at 5:09 of the 3rd, after Mikhail Sergachev coughed up the puck at the Red Wings blue line and the Detroit forward came down all alone on Tampa Bay netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy. Vrana fired one past him on the short side to give the visitors a lead they would not relinquish.
Neither team scored in the opening period, but the Lightning thoroughly outplayed the Red Wings, outshooting them 15-5.
Detroit started the 2nd putting a TON of pressure on Tampa Bay, but the Bolts were the team who opened up the scoring.
After Ondrej Palat re-directed a Ryan McDonagh pass to a streaking Steven Stamkos flying into the zone, the Captain found Ross Colton skating in from the left wing & he quickly snapped a shot past Greiss to put the Lightning up 1-0 at the 3:58 mark.
The Lightning lead, however, did not last long.
Just 22 seconds after the Colton goal, Oskar Sundqvist scored to tie the game at one, but the Wings weren't done there.
Vrana scored at 6:34, and then Lucas Raymond at 8:17 to put Detroit up two before the midway point of the period.
Following the Raymond tally Lightning head coach Jon Cooper called a timeout & really gave his team an earful during the pause, which seemed to light a fire under his club.
Nikita Kucherov drew a hooking penalty on Detroit defenseman Danny DeKeyser at 9:40 and then scored on the subsequent power play just 7 seconds into it.
Tampa Bay played much better for the remainder of the period, but Detroit still held a one-goal lead.
Colton scored his second of the game just 43 seconds into the 3rd period to tie the score at three apiece but the scoring dried up for the Lightning after that.
Stamkos had three assists on the night, his last one tying Martin St. Louis for the most points in franchise history with 953.
Vasilevskiy, who picked up his 10,000th save in the 1st period, made 27 saves in defeat.
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SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
NONE
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Colton - (Stamkos, Palat) - 3:58
- Detroit - Sundqvist - (DeKeyser, Seider) - 4:20
- Detroit - Vrana - (Zadina, Walman) - 6:34
- Detroit - Raymond - (Unassisted) - 8:17
- Tampa Bay - PPG - Kucherov - (Hedman, Stamkos) - 9:47
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - Colton (2) - (Stamkos, Cernak) - 0:43
- Detroit - Vrana (2) - (Unassisted) - 5:09
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PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- Detroit - Bertuzzi - (Hooking) - 5:00
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Cernak - (Cross Checking) - 4:28
- Detroit - DeKeyser - (Hooking) - 9:40
- Detroit - Staal - (Cross Checking) - 13:30
- Tampa Bay - Stamkos - (Tripping) - 18:05
3rd Period
NONE
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What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Thursday night as they welcome in the Toronto Maple Leafs to Amalie Arena. Puck drop is slated for 8:00pm with the pregame show starting at 7:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA & Lightning Power Play on the iHeartRadio app.
Photo: Getty Images North America
PHOTO : Getty Images