BOX SCORE: Lightning 6, Red Wings 3<\/a><\/p>\n“Even when we were winning games, we were down a goal or two early and right now, we’re just a little fragile and mistakes seem to be compounding,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “We’re finding ourselves down early in games and that’s the way it’s going right now. There’s a blueprint in how we play well and you saw it parts (Friday) but in this league against a team like that, you have to be ready all 60 (minutes) and show what you are made of all those 60.”<\/p>\n
Tampa’s Jake Guentzel scored his 13th goal, at 12 minutes 37 seconds of the third period, giving Tampa a 5-3 lead.<\/p>\n
With the teams skating four players per side, Guentzel battled for position net-front, got his stick on Darren Raddysh’s point shot and redirected the puck through goaltender John Gibson (22 saves).<\/p>\n
Brandon Hagel scored his 13th goal into an empty net at 17:13 to conclude the scoring.<\/p>\n
Coach Todd McLellan has emphasized a stronger net-front presence both offensively and defensively \u2013 but the Wings largely lost both those on-ice position battles.<\/p>\n
“They care, I have to make that clear,” McLellan said. “They care and they practice and they do care. But that only gets you so far. We’re trying to give them some guidance but when it doesn’t go well, we have to stay with it and the unfortunate thing tonight is we could have walked over (to Tampa’s room) and pulled Coop (coach Jon Cooper) and a couple of their guys and say, ‘Here’s two (goals), you take those two and now we’ll start playing.'”<\/p>\n
“That’s just the way it is and we’re not good enough to give stuff away for free. Until we fix it and take care of it, we’ll keep having these issues.”<\/p>\n
Tampa (15-7-2) goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots while playing one of his usual All-Star-caliber games.<\/p>\n
Larkin got the Wings to within a goal, 4-3, with a late second-period tally. Larkin found room down the wing, skated to near the dot and snapped a shot through Vasilevskiy for his 14th goal, at 18:26.<\/p>\n
The Wings were forced to play catch-up the entire second period.<\/p>\n
Tampa’s Gage Goncalves broke a 1-1 tie just 34 seconds into the period. Goncalves out-muscled Albert Johansson to the puck, drove to the net, and beat Gibson for his second goal of the season.<\/p>\n
Yanni Gourde scored the first of his two goals at 3:01, extending Tampa’s lead to 3-1. Gourde gathered a loose puck in front and flipped it over Gibson.<\/p>\n
It’s the third time in the last two games the Wings have quickly allowed multiple goals.<\/p>\n
“We weren’t good in the (faceoff) circle, so if you don’t start with the puck after you give up a goal, you want to have possession,” McLellan said. “If you don’t, they have a little momentum and they’re coming after you. We’ll have to look at that (the reason for allowing quick, multiple goals). There’s not a pattern showing up, but it’s happening and we have to find a way to solve it.”<\/p>\n
The Wings did answer the goals quickly, with Michael Rasmussen celebrating his return to the lineup with his third goal at 3:13. Rasmussen tapped it a loose puck behind Vasilevskiy, after the goaltender made the initial stop on J.T. Compher, but couldn’t clean the puck out of the crease.<\/p>\n
But Gourde regained a two-goal lead for Tampa at 16:09 with his second goal, fifth of the season. Gourde got to a loose puck near the hashmarks and slapped a shot into a high corner, with Gibson blinded by a maze of bodies near his crease.<\/p>\n
Compher and Raddysh (power play) traded first-period goals.<\/p>\n
Compher opened the scoring with his fourth goal. Rasmussen, who was activated off the injured list before the game, stopped a rimmed puck in the corner, then while falling to the ice, passed the puck to Compher near the dot. Compher quickly snapped a shot past Vasilevskiy at 11:29.<\/p>\n
“We created opportunities by forechecking and dumping the puck,” said Compher of his line, with Rasmussen and Mason Appleton. “Those two guys are great forecheckers and Mike made an unbelievable play on my goal, but it’s just simple. We talked about forechecking and our line did that (Friday) and we had some success.”<\/p>\n
But Tampa evened it later in the period.<\/p>\n
On the power play, Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov worked the puck to Raddysh in the high slot. Raddysh, whose shot annually ranks among the hardest in the NHL, unleashed a slapshot that Gibson barely saw at 17:07. It was Raddysh’s third goal and stretched Kucherov’s point streak to eight games.<\/p>\n
In the bunched Eastern Conference, along with the Atlantic Division standings, the Wings are still in the thick of the race, but can’t afford to fall too far back.<\/p>\n
“Definitely there’s frustration through the room,” Compher said. “Guys are working hard but right now it doesn’t feel like it’s enough. We need to do a better job of cleaning up a lot of different areas of our game. We need to keep the puck out of our net, that’s plain and simple the problem, and it’s every guy, goalies, defensemen, forwards, every situation, it’s just a mindset and commitment.”<\/p>\n
tkulfan@detroitnews.com<\/p>\n
@tkulfan<\/p>\n
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