Sprong scores to give Red Wings lead in 2-1 victory to snap Lightning’s five-game win streak
DETROIT (AP) — Daniel Sprong scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and the Detroit Red Wings beat Tampa Bay 2-1 on Sunday night, snapping the Lightning’s five-game winning streak.
Lucas Raymond also scored for Detroit, which is 7-1-1 over the last nine games. Alex Lyon made 29 saves, including 19 in the third period.
The Red Wings were playing the first of five consecutive home games before the All-Star break.
“It’s a very dangerous team. I think we played really well tonight, maybe one of the more complete games we’ve played all season,” Lyon said. “Really difficult to come off a road trip emotionally and physically. The way that we responded tonight was awesome.”
Victor Hedman scored for the Lightning and Nikita Kucherov added an assist for his 76th point. He’s one point behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves.
“Some nights, you’re fighting to get momentum, you’re fighting to make plays,” Hedman said. “We couldn’t get anything going. Just had to put that behind us and look forward and we did that (in the third). We had some unbelievable looks and just couldn’t put it in.”
The Lightning struck first at 8:45 of the opening period. Kucherov set up Hedman’s ninth goal, a one-timer from the right circle.
Raymond’s 13th goal late in the period tied it. His shot from the slot trickled behind Vasilevskiy and the goaltender accidently batted the puck into the net with his blocker.
Valilevskiy had a 14-2 record against Detroit entering Sunday’s game.
“It’s frustrating for sure, because he makes what seems like the save of the year every time,” Raymond said. “You just have to stick with it and try to get one past him.”
Sprong’s 12th goal came on a breakaway at 8:58 of the second period, as he beat Vasilveskiy on the glove side.
“(Teammate Patrick Kane) was telling me all morning low glove, low glove. I told him if I scored I was gonna give him a point but he didn’t see it,” Sprong said. “Vasilevskiy’s probably the best goalie in the league. It’s not easy to score on him.”
The Lightning didn’t have any power plays until the third period. The Red Wings managed to kill off all three of them, including a brief one in the last 11.4 seconds.
“Just can’t play one period in this league and expect to win,” Lightning coach John Cooper said. “We had a chance and the only reason we had a chance is because our goalie gave us a chance. We get the goal semi-early in the game, heck of a play by those guys, and as soon as that happened, our game went south and they turned it up a notch. If you want to make the playoffs you can’t lay an egg like that.”
Kane missed his third consecutive game with a lower body injury.
UP NEXT
Lightning: At Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Red Wings: Host Dallas on Tuesday night.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL