The road is not their friend.
The power play is not good for them.
The playoffs are all uphill.
And furthermore, ouch.
It all conspired to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning Tueseday night in a 3-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings as the Bolts fell behind 2-1 in their best-of-seven playoff series.
The Lightning now faces a must-win in its Thursday night game in Detroit. If it were to lose, the Bolts would trail 3-1 in the series, meaning it would have to win three straight, including two in Detroit.
It was a bit of a disappointment for everyone who had hoped that the Lightning had found its playoff lets in Sunday’s 5-1 victory over Detroit. That, coupled with the fact that Tampa Bay had outshot Detroit 46-14 in a 3-2 loss in the opener, had given Lightning fans a reason to believe that Tampa Bay had taken over the momentum in the series.
They hadn’t.
The Lightning laid an egg in Detroit. For the entire season, the Lightning has been a very good team at home (32-8-1) but not so good on the road (now 18-17-1). It has scored 20 fewer goals away from home than at Amalie Arena. Going into Thursday night’s game in Detroit, that has to be a concern for the Bolts.
It probably doesn’t surprise anyone, but the old soft spot, the power play, haunted Tampa Bay in another loss. The Lightning was 0-6 with a man advantage, making them 0-for-13 in their two playoff losses. During the regular season, the Lightning’s power play on the road was only 25th in the NHL.
The Lightning has now lost seven of its last eight playoff games.
It was the second impressive game by Detroit goaltender Petr Mrazek, who was supposed to be one of the Detroit weak spots. He stopped all 22 of the Lightning shots, although he had help from his goal post in the first period.
Detroit got its first goal from Pavel Datsyuk on a deflection. Riley Sheahan scored on a power play goal, and Luke Glendening added an empty netter.
