TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jake Guentzel and Gage Goncalves each scored twice, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Thursday night.
Tampa Bay won for just the third time in the past nine games since the Olympic break to move within two points of Buffalo for the Atlantic Division lead. Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov each had two assists.
J.T. Compher scored for the Red Wings, and John Gibson stopped 24 shots. Detroit has just one win the past five games (1-3-1), but remained in the No. 1 wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference standings.
Tampa Bay started the second period on a carryover power play and wasted little time taking advantage of it when Guentzel took a backhand pass from Kucherov and had a lane toward the net. Guentzel got to the middle of the zone and beat Gibson at 49 seconds.
The Lightning carried that one-goal lead into the third period and scored 1:35 into the period. A point shot from Brayden Point deflected off the shin pad of Ben Chiarot and then off the top of the skate of Goncalves.
Detroit countered on Alex DeBrincat’s shot that tipped off the stick of Compher at 7:05. Goncalves regained the two-goal lead with another deflection of Point’s shot with 3:38 to go. Guentzel added an empty-netter with 3:05 left.
Up next
Red Wings: At Dallas on Saturday
Lightning: Host Hurricanes on Saturday
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