Behind Brayden Point’s two goals and Andrei Vasilevskiy’s stellar goaltending, the Tampa Bay Lightning set a franchise record on Tuesday night in a 4-2 home win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The victory moved the Lightning to 7-0-0 at home to start the season, breaking the previous record in their first game against an Atlantic Division rival.
Anthony Cirelli scored and Ryan McDonagh hit an empty net in the final second. Nikita Kucherov posted two assists while Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots.
Detroit’s J.T. Compher had a power-play goal and an assist, and Lucas Raymond also tallied. Starting goalie John Gibson stopped 11 of 13 shots in the first period but left with a lower-body injury. Daniil Tarasov made 12 saves in relief as the club fell to 2-1-1 within the division.
Sporting their “Hometown Remix” uniforms with a skull centered in a circle on the jersey, the Lightning put shots early on Gibson, while the Wings could not produce any threat with the puck.
Tampa Bay was able to capitalize on the game’s first power play after Moritz Seider’s interference infraction. Tampa Bay patiently set up its power play and cashed in when Kucherov fed Point, who mishit his slot shot but got enough at 7:54.
The Lightning’s duo doubled the lead with about seven minutes remaining. Kucherov skated from behind the goal and fed Point crashing in for his for second tally and first multigoal outing this season.
Detroit posted just two shots in the first period, and Cirelli found a loose puck and lifted his fifth marker over Tarasov at 8:41 of the second. However, on just his club’s fourth shot, Raymond ripped in his sixth tally of the year later for a 3-1 score less than two minutes. Michael Rasmussen missed an open net late in the frame that would have cut it to one goal.
At 5:29 of the third with Rasmussen parked in front of Vasilevskiy, Compher potted a power-play goal to bring it to 3-2.
The Lightning killed off two power plays in the final 10 minutes, and Vasilevskiy stopped multiple point-blank chances to preserve the record-setting win.