The Tampa Bay Lightning are moving on to round two. (USATSI)
Every night during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Eye On Hockey writers Adam Gretz and Chris Peters will bring you up to speed everything you need to know about all of the action around the NHL. Here’s what you need to know about Red Wings vs. Lightning, Game 7.
Detroit Red Wings vs Tampa Bay Lightning, Game 7
Tampa Bay Lightning 2, Detroit Red Wings 0 | Lightning wins series 4-3
Game 7 in a nutshell: With their 2-0 win the Tampa Bay Lightning are moving on to the second round where they will face their Atlantic Division rivals, the Montreal Canadiens. But it certainly wasn’t easy. Not only did they have to win the last two games of the series, but they were outplayed for most of Game 7. The Lightning looked to be overwhelmed for most of the night as the Red Wings came at them in waves and created chance after chance only to fail to convert every time thanks to some great play from Ben Bishop in net, as well as their own missed opportunities. Speaking of which…
Turning point: Late in the second period the Red Wings had two great opportunities, both of them belonging to Tomas Tatar, to get the all important first goal. On one, Tatar simply had the puck just slide off of his stick as he was skating in alone on Bishop. Then, as the final seconds were ticking off of of the second period clock, Tatar attempted to redirect a pass into a wide open net only to have the puck again slide off of his stick and harmlessly go wide. When the margin of error is so small in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, especially in a Game 7 that was separated by just a single goal until a late empty net tally, misses like that are enormous.
Three things we learned
1. Goalies are unpredictable monsters. For most of the series Bishop looked like the weak link in the Tampa Bay machine (and he still might be in the end) but he was sensational for the Lightning in their biggest game of the season, holding off an early storm by the Red Wings in the first period and slamming the door shut to give his team an opportunity to move on the second round. He stopped all 31 shots he faced. And on a night where his team generated only 17 shots, with only nine at even strength, he had no margin for error.
2. One of the underlying storylines in this series was Tampa Bay’s constant calls for the referees to pay attention to Detroit’s interference. Maybe it worked to some degree. The Red Wings were called for eight interference penalties in the series, including two on Wednesday night, more than any other team in the first round. No other team was called for more than four interference penalties.
3. Even though they lost it’s difficult to argue that the Red Wings missed Niklas Kronwall (suspension) and Marek Zidlicky (injury). They played well, they carried the game for long stretches, but their forwards simply could not beat Bishop. This loss was not on the defense.
Video of the game: Braydon Coburn sends the Tampa Bay Lightning to the second round with his early third period goal to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead. Not every trade deadline acquisition works out for teams, but for one night, on one shot, Tampa Bay’s trade to get Coburn from the Philadelphia Flyers was a major win. It was the only goal of the night that was scored against a goalie.
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