Michael Rasmussen had two goals and two assists and Dylan Larkin added two goals and an assist as the Detroit Red Wings snapped a six-game winless streak by defeating the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 7-4 on Wednesday night.
David Perron contributed a goal and two assists, while Olli Maatta and Elmer Soderblom also scored for Detroit, which hadn’t won since a 4-2 victory over Tampa Bay earlier this month. Ville Husso made 34 saves.
Nikita Kucherov and Ross Colton each had a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who lost to Toronto the previous night. Alex Killorn and Brayden Point added goals and Brian Elliott made 24 saves.
The game was tied 2-2 after the first period.
Point scored during the second minute of the contest on a two-on-one situation.
The last three goals of the period were scored during the final five minutes. The Red Wings forced Elliott to make numerous saves in one sequence before Pius Suter passed the puck from behind the net to Maatta, who scored from short range on the left side.
Killorn scored his ninth goal off a rebound.
Rasmussen tallied with 28 seconds left in the period when he redirected a Ben Chiarot shot from the point.
The score was knotted at 3-3 after two periods.
Larkin scored his 11th goal by lifting a shot from the left circle over Elliott’s right shoulder off a Perron feed.
Just over two minutes later, the Lightning tied it when Detroit’s Adam Erne lost the puck in his own zone. Colton pounced on it and beat Husso on the stick side.
A careless turnover by Elliott led to Soderblom’s goal at 3:48 of the third. He tried to pass the puck from behind his net, but Joe Veleno intercepted it and sent it to Soderblom, who scored before Elliott could recover.
Larkin’s second goal of the game came midway through the period from a difficult angle on the left side.
Kucherov scored from the right circle at 16:13 to cut Detroit’s lead to 5-4.
Larkin then set up Perron for an empty-netter about a minute later. Rasmussen added another empty-netter with one minute to go.
–Field Level Media
