Written by Kevin Allen at USAToday.com
You can’t qualify for the NHL playoffs for 25 consecutive seasons without players who understand the correlation between resiliency and winning.
The Detroit Red Wings put their postseason expertise to use Sunday by grinding out a 2-0 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning to cut their deficit to 2-1 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
“Their desperation level was higher than ours,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “That’s the big difference. The more desperate team won the hockey game.”
After losing the first two games in Tampa, Detroit sports talk shows and message boards were overrun by fans saying it might be time for the organization to make major changes. If the Red Wings lose this series, it would mark the third season in a row they would be ousted in the first round.
The Red Wings responded with a spirited defensive effort that limited the skillful Lightning to 16 shots on goal. The Justin Abdelkader-Luke Glendening-Riley Sheahan line didn’t allow Tampa Bay’s top line (Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov) to register a shot on goal. That Lightning trio had totaled 15 points in the first two games.
“The one thing we talked about was that they can’t go out there and defend all night,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “That line does a good job of making the Johnson line defend them. They are big guys. They can roll around the offensive zone. Spending time in the other team’s zone is the best defense.”
Andreas Athanasiou scored the first goal, but his teammates might end up with a longer memory of the 360-degree spin-a-rama move he tried before sailing a shot over the top of the net. Henrik Zetterberg, who had six of the team’s 30 shots, netted the second goal.
Blashill made two significant roster moves for Game 3, bringing in goalie Petr Mrazekfor Jimmy Howard and adding feisty Brendan Smith to the defense.
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