Detroit @ Tampa Bay preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 4, 2018 ) Tampa Bay 6, Detroit 5

The league-best Tampa Bay Lightning look to bounce back from a rare shutout loss Saturday night as they go after a 14th straight regular-season victory against the visiting Detroit Red Wings. The Lightning have been blanked three times this season, but won a shootout and gained a point in overtime in the first two before managing five shots in the third period of a 3-0 setback against Minnesota on Thursday.

“They outskated us,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told reporters after his team’s second regulation loss in 18 games. “We played a stubborn game (Thursday), stubborn in the sense that we didn’t manage the puck at all. … When you’ve got to kind of play that grind-it-out game, we refused to play it tonight.” The Lightning have knocked off the Red Wings twice in 2018-19, including a 6-5 triumph in a shootout Dec. 4 in the last meeting, and have not lost to Detroit in the regular season since Nov. 3, 2015. The Red Wings will miss the playoffs for the third straight season, but were able to snap an eight-game losing streak Thursday with a 3-2 shootout win over the New York Rangers without leading scorer Dylan Larkin (back) and defenseman Mike Green, who will miss the rest of the season with a virus. “I think we played great tonight,” Detroit forward Andreas Athanasiou told reporters Thursday. “We’re missing two key players - one up front and one on defense - so we needed to step up without them.”

TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Detroit, FS Sun (Tampa Bay)

ABOUT THE RED WINGS (24-33-10): With Larkin out, Detroit coach Jeff Blashill moved Athanasiou to center on the top line with Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi before he notched a goal and an assist in 24:13 of ice time. “Those are the minutes I would play (Larkin) in a game like this, especially with overtime, and he earned them,” Blashill told reporters. “When he’s on, he’s an incredibly electric players, and I thought he was electric every time he touched the puck (Thursday).” Rookie right wing Filip Zadina, the sixth pick in the 2018 draft, has a goal and 12 shots in his first five NHL games.

ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (51-13-4): Right wing Nikita Kucherov (31 goals) leads the league with 108 points and needs one to pass Vincent Lecavalier for the franchise single-season record. Captain Steven Stamkos owns 382 career goals and is one shy of the club record - also held by Lecavalier - while trailing Brayden Point (37) by three for the team lead this season. Physical forward Adam Erne (18 points, 53 games) left Thursday’s contest after taking a puck off his arm while blocking a shot and his status for the matchup against Detroit is uncertain.

OVERTIME

1. Three of Detroit C Frans Nielsen's nine goals this season came in a hat trick against the Lightning.

2. Tampa Bay G Andrei Vasilevskiy is 7-0-0 with a 1.61 goals-against average and .950 save percentage all-time versus Detroit.

3. The Lightning is first in the NHL in power play and penalty killing percentage while the Wings are 24th and 26th, respectively, through Thursday.

PREDICTION: Lightning 5, Red Wings 2