Lucas Raymond has goal, assist as Detroit Red Wings blank Lightning
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TAMPA, FL – Alex DeBrincat was among Detroit Red Wings who'd eyed the FAA ground stop and wondered about getting home from their trip.
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The stop had been lifted for 24 hours by the time the Wings took on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, Nov. 14, at Benchmark International Arena, which left DeBrincat hoping "we'll go home with a win."
Goalie Daniil Tarasov did his part, making one quality save after another, and the Wings as a whole played a solid, hard-nosed game. The reward was just what they needed: A 2-0 victory that ended a five-game skid and improved the Wings to 8-10-3.
Tarasov made 31 saves. Lucas Raymond scored in the second period and then assisted as Michael Brandsegg-Nygard found the back of an empty net with 42.2 seconds remaining as the Wings handed the Bolts their first home loss of the season.
Who played
The Wings made changes to several lines, with Marco Kasper moving up to the first line next to Emmitt Finnie and DeBrincat. Viktor Arvidsson, who had been on that line, moved onto one with J.T. Compher and Carter Mazur. The second line remained Andrew Copp with Brandsegg-Nygard and Raymond. Micheal Rasmussen returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch two nights earlier against the Florida Panthers. Instead, Mason Appleton sat, two games after returning from a more than a months-long injury layoff. Rasmussen was on a line with Sheldon Dries and Keegan Kolesar.
On the back end, Moritz Seider paired with Willian Wallinder, Justin Faulk with Ben Chiarot and Anton Johansson with Andreas Englund.
Lightning attack
Forwards Brayden Point, Erik Cernak and Anthony Cirelli all missed the game because of injuries, but Tarasov still had his hands full. Brandon Hagel had two good chances in a row, open shots from in close. Conor Geekie likewise had close attempts from just outside to the right of the crease, before Johansson rubbed Geekie into the glass, leading to a pileup behind the net. Ilya Mikheyev tried to take advantage of Tarasov going behind his net to play the puck, but Tarasov was able to swipe the puck away before Mikheyev did any damage. The Wings had only four shots on net in the first period to the Lightning's mine, but did go 8-for-12 on faceoffs.
Making it count
The Wings were better able to test Andrei Vasilevskiy in the second period, and made one count at 13:12. Chiarot cleared the puck from the Wings' crease and fired a shot up the boards. Wallinder picked it up and sent a long range pass to Raymond as he hustled through the neutral zone, past Tampa's defenders for a breakaway. Raymond closed in on the slot before he picked a corner, sending the puck glove side past Vasilevskiy for a 1-0 lead. That was Raymond's eighth goal of the season
Next up: Bear necessities
Their road trip ended, the Red Wings return to Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 18 (7:30 p.m., TNT) to host the Boston Bruins in a game sure to be draped in Original Six nostalgia. While the Wings aren’t quite living up to times past, the Bruins are, once again, one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, entering Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild at 13-5-1. The Bruins are led by David Pastrnak, who only seems like he date’s back to the Original Six; instead, the 30-year-old entered Saturday with eight goals and 16 assists in this, his 13th season. He’s 72 goals short of 500, and 43 points short of 1,000 for his career. The visit from the Bruins opens a stretch in which six of seven games are at LCA.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lucas Raymond has goal, assist as Detroit Red Wings blank Lightning