Lightning hold off Red Wings to force Game 7
The Tampa Bay Lightning live to see another game. Their 5-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings Monday night forces a Game 7, which will be back home at Amalie Arena.
Leading up to Game 6, the focus was on the banter between head coaches Jon Cooper and Mike Babcock. The Lightning bench boss complained about the Red Wings getting away with interference calls throughout the series. There were no calls of that sort during the game, and Cooper’s qualms will likely be quieted as he prepares his team for a do-or-die Game 7 Wednesday night.
Tampa didn’t wait long to take the lead. Just 3:47 into the opening period, Victor Hedman sent a homerun pass to Nikita Kucherov, who dropped the puck to a speeding Tyler Johnson. The Lightning’s leading scorer didn’t waste his opportunity and beat Petr Mrazek.
Eight minutes later the Tampa doubled their lead when Jason Garrison took advantage of the extra time and space in the Detroit zone:
Brian Boyle had the best scoring chance of the night when he fooled Mrazek with a deke, but the Red Wings netminder recovered to make a beautiful stick save and keep the score 2-0.
Tampa would finally get that third goal when Johnson tallied his second of the night 9:09 into the second period. The 5-foot-9 center leads the team in scoring with six goals. The rest of his teammates? They’ve scored a combined nine through six games.
Detroit, however, wasn’t ready to roll over. Tomas Tatar scored a power play goal midway through the second and another one 1:39 into the third period to cut Tampa’s lead to 3-2. Ben Bishop looked shaky late in the game inside the Lightning net, but the Red Wings were unable to find a tying goal.
The backbreaker came via the stick of Alex Killorn with 5:09 left to give Tampa a 4-2 lead.
The Lightning will play in their first Game 7 since the 2011 Eastern Conference Final when they fell to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins. Detroit played two Game 7s in 2013, beating the Anaheim Ducks in Round 1 and losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round.
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