Red Wings lose to Lightning as injury problems continue to grow

By Stefan Kubus –

DETROIT – In a battle featuring many faces from the 2013 AHL Calder Cup Finals, the recalled players for Tampa Bay provided the offense that Detroit just couldn’t match.

Sunday’s tilt, a 3-0 Tampa Bay win over Detroit, featured 14 players – six from Detroit and eight from Tampa Bay – that competed in last year’s AHL Calder Cup Finals. Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson, J.T. Brown and Alex Killorn scored for the Lightning, while Ben Bishop made 28 saves between the pipes for the shutout. Petr Mrazek stopped 24 of 26 in the loss, his second game of the season.

“I thought we played pretty well,” Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said of the game. “I didn’t think there was much to pick between the two teams. We both played last night. I thought their goaltending was outstanding. We made a couple mistakes, they shot it in our net.”

20-year-old Tomas Jurco made his NHL debut to fill in for the injured Justin Abdelkader, playing on a line with Pavel Datsyuk and Daniel Alfredsson. Jurco recorded one shot and two hits in 16:45 of ice time, including 1:27 on the power-play. Prior to his call-up, Jurco had recorded 27 points in 26 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins this season.

“He’s big, he’s fast, he’s got some skill set,” Babcock said of Jurco. “I’d like him to be more dangerous, taking the puck to the net and that, but I still thought he did lots of good things for Pav and Alfie getting pucks back. But he looks like fairly high-end player.”

Jurco also marked the eighth Griffin from last year’s Calder Cup-winning team to suit up for Detroit this season overall (Adam Almquist played one game, while Danny DeKeyser is currently injured). Alfredsson could be seen talking with Jurco at various points in the game on the bench and before face-offs on the ice.

“I thought I was going to be more nervous, but after warm-ups, I just felt great,” Jurco said of his debut. “[Datsyuk and Alfredsson] told me where to go, where to stand and what player I should take.”

Despite allowing a pair of goals, Mrazek provided a sound, stable presence in goal for an offensively-challenged Red Wings squad of late. In the second period, most notably, the 21-year-old Czech goaltender shuffled from right to left to make a brilliant save on a 2-on-1 passing play by the Bolts.

“I saw the guy a little bit on my left side,” Mrazek said. “The guy in the center, he got the puck and I don’t think he could shoot because three of our players were there, so I was waiting for that pass.”

The previous two meetings with Tampa Bay this season saw the Red Wings fall in overtime (Nov. 9) and in a shootout (Dec. 12). That overtime loss was the first time the Lightning won at Joe Louis Arena since 1994.

But in this contest, Detroit’s Gustav Nyquist thought he had a goal in the first period, banging home his own rebound, but the referee blew the whistle before it went in because he thought Bishop had the puck covered.

From then on, it took over 40 minutes, but Tampa Bay struck first. Johnson scored at 3:13 of the third period, as Martin St. Louis whiffed on a shot off a Ondrej Palat lateral pass in the slot. The puck then continued on to Johnson on the far side, who had an open net to score on for the 1-0 lead.

Brown then made it 2-0 with just over 10 minutes to play in the third period, outmuscling Pavel Datsyuk in front to tip home his second of the year off a pass from the corner.

Late in the second period, another Red Wing went down as Johan Franzen headed to the dressing room and did not return. No update on his condition was available after the game.

It was evident, especially in the second period, that both teams played less than 24 hours to Sunday’s puck drop.

“I don’t think there was a lot of energy on either side tonight,” Kronwall said. “But at the end of the second there, we had some really good shifts down low and started getting some opportunities that way, had some real good looks below the slot.”

Despite not allowing a power-play goal, the Red Wings failed to convert with the man-advantage themselves, going 0-for-8 on the two-game weekend.

“On the power-play, we’ve got to find a way to get the puck in the net,” Kronwall said. “We had some opportunities, but we’re not taking advantage of them right now. We have to bear down. We know we’re a better team than that. We’ve got to stick with it here.”

Alas, Babcock said he thought the team played much better than it did against Pittsburgh on Saturday, but with the offense struggling “for whatever reason,” the club has to play especially stingy defense going forward.

“We’re not scoring, obviously, as a group right now at all, so we’ve got to continue to check real well and not give up much. i thought it was a tight game both ways. We’ve got to find a way to win a game.”