Having snapped a five-game winning streak with a defeat in Toronto last night, the Tampa Bay Lightning (3rd in Atlantic Division) will round off a back-to-back set with a trip to Detroit, where the local Red Wings (6th in Atlantic) return to end a six-game losing skid.
The current back-to-back set started on a downer for the Tampa Bay Lightning (20-10-1), whose five-game winning run came to an end following a 4-1 setback against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena last night. Vladislav Namestnikov (2 goals, 8 points this year) scored the only snipe for the Bolts, cutting Toronto’s initial 2-0 lead in half four minutes into the third period before the hosts tallied two empty-netters in the last 1:46 of the fixture. Tampa Bay, which was outshot by a double yesterday (40-19), has dropped just four of its previous 17 decisions (13-4-0), going 4-2-0 on its most recent six travels.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves last night to go 13-9-1 for the current campaign with a 2.53 GAA and a .917 save percentage. Brian Elliott (7-1-0 on the season with a 3.10 GAA and a .902 save percentag e), though, is expected to patrol the crease in Detroit, having recorded a 10-6-2 previous total against the Red Wings with a 2.07 GAA and a .925 save percentage. The Lightning, meanwhile, are burying the 3rd highest amount of goals per game this year (3.58), while conceding the 14th lowest quantity defensively (2.87). They are 5th in power play (27.2%) and 9th in penalty kill (80.4%).