Written by Fred Goodall at DetroitCBSLocal.com
Tyler Johnson scored a pair of third-period goals Friday night, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Ben Bishop had 30 saves for the defending Eastern Conference champions, who took the first two games at home despite playing without injured leading goal scorer Steven Stamkos and defenseman Anton Stralman.
A bloody brawl involving several players capped this one, with 14 penalties called — including a game misconduct on Justin Abdelkader — with 54 seconds left. Tampa Bay’s Mike Blunden was left with his face bloodied after fighting with Abdelkader.
Game 3 is Sunday in Detroit, where the Red Wings won both regular-season meetings between the teams.
Johnson put Tampa Bay ahead for good barely two minutes after Detroit’s Brad Richards made it 2-2 with a power-play goal. Nikita Kucherov and Brian Boyle also scored for the Lightning, who tacked on Alex Killorn’s empty-netter with 2:14 remaining.
Johnson also had two assists, the first on Kucherov’s 5-on-3 power-play goal. Kucherov and Killorn had the primary assists on Johnson’s goals, and Jonathan Drouin got his first career playoff point, setting up Boyle to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead.
Rookie Dylan Larkin scored a first-period goal for Detroit, which outshot the Lightning (32-31) for the second straight game.
The line of Johnson, Kucherov and Killorn had three goals and three assists for Tampa Bay in Game 1, with Killorn scoring the winner to finish a comeback from a 2-1 deficit.
Kucherov’s third goal of the series, on a shot from the right circle that skipped over Howard’s left shoulder, got the Lightning off to another strong start. Victor Hedman and Johnson assisted after Kucherov hit the crossbar from the left circle with Red Wings Gustav Nyquist (slashing) and Abdelkader (tripping) in the penalty box.
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