TAMPA, Fla. _ The Detroit Red Wings got schooled, hurt and beat.
They lost on special teams and they lost goaltender Jimmy Howard Tuesday at Amalie Arena as they fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1.
The game carried extra significance because the Lightning are an Atlantic rival the Wings are battling for one of the top three spots in the division.
Those playoff hopes are getting fainter by the game, and now it looks like Jimmy Howard may miss some time. He sustained an injury at 5:39 of the second period when he was toppled over by the Wings' Nick Jensen and Tampa's Erik Condra. An update was not immediately available, but Howard had to be helped off, and he couldn't put any weight on his right leg. He'd allowed one goal on 16 shots.
Petr Mrazek came in and allowed three goals on eight shots to make it a 4-0 game entering the third period. Two of those goals came during power plays, while the Wings had nothing to show for five man-advantages. It took nearly 10 minutes for the Wings to get their first shot on net of the third period. Anthony Mantha scored with 10.5 seconds to go.
A night after prepping for a game only to have it called off because of poor ice conditions, the Wings did not use their fresh legs to get much offensive zone play against the Lightning. No surprise, then, that it was the Lightning who got on the scoreboard first, when Brian Boyle tipped Anton Stralman's shot at 7:02. The Wings had yet to just get a shot on Ben Bishop. Finally Ryan Sproul forced a save with a slap shot.
Bishop was replaced by Andrei Vasilevskiy at 12:14, shortly after making a save on Jensen. The Wings had to deal with a penalty, which saw Howard keep cool amid a flurry of shots, requiring four straight saves. When the Wings got a power play, the best they could muster was a clean shot from the left side by Gustav Nyquist that Vasilevskiy had no trouble handling. A second power play yielded no shots on net at all, and left the Wings outshot, 13-7, after 20 minutes.
A third power play was squandered early in the second period, the sole threat a Niklas Kronwall slap shot. Jonathan Drouin made it 2-0 seconds after the Lightning got a two-man advantage, while the Wings did nothing with their 40-second two-man advantage.
Brayden Point made it 3-0 on another power play, converting down low off a rebound from Tyler Johnson. Since the Wings were offering no resistance, Vladimir Namestnikov got it to 4-0 with 33 second to play in the second period.
