TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The Tampa Bay Lightning may have gotten a costly win. However, it was better than the disheartening night for the Detroit Red Wings.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves in relief of Ben Bishop as the Lightning beat the Red Wings 4-1 Tuesday night in a game where both starting goalies left due to injuries.
Bishop was hurt 12 minutes into the first period, going down after kicking out his right leg to make a pad save on Nick Jensen’s shot. The Lightning said Bishop, who skated gingerly to the bench, has a lower-body injury.
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper had no update on Bishop but said the goalie will be evaluated Wednesday.
“Another big part of our club has gone down,” the Lightning’s Brian Boyle said. “He comes out of the game, you feel for the guy because he’s in pain. You watch what Vasy did, he came in cold. The kid’s ready, he’s a pro.”
Detroit’s Jimmy Howard departed with 12:41 remaining in the second. He was unable to put weight on his right leg following a goalmouth scramble involving Jensen and Tampa Bay’s Erik Condra.
Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill ruled Howard out of Friday night’s game at Florida and said goalie Jared Coreau will be called up from the minors.
“I don’t have anything further than that,” Blashill said.
Jensen, making his NHL debut, assisted on Anthony Mantha’s goal with 10.5 seconds left in the third.
“I take compete blame on that one,” said Jensen about Howard’s injury. “The guy got past me and created a 3-on-2. I hustled back trying to get to the front of the net. I saw they got a shot and I kind of panicked. Tried to tie the guy up but I got hooked around him, and I ran into Jimmy.”
Boyle, Jonathan Drouin, Brayden Point and Vladislav Namestnikov scored for the Lightning, who are 3-7-2 over their last 12 games. Tampa Bay is 3-0 against Detroit this season.
Detroit, 1-4-1 over the last six games, had its NHL-worst road power play go 0 for 5. The Red Wings have converted just 2 of 40 chances overall away from home.
“I thought some guys did and some guys didn’t compete hard enough,” Blashill said. “I didn’t think it was good enough across the board.”
Both teams entered missing key players due to injury.
Tampa Bay is without center Steven Stamkos, forwards Ryan Callahan, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat.
Detroit’s injured list includes defensemen Mike Green, Brendan Smith and Alexey Marchenko, center Darren Helm and forward Justin Abdelkader. Defenseman Brian Lashoff was scratched one day after taking a puck to the mouth in Monday’s morning skate.
Boyle opened the scoring 7:02 into the game. Drouin, Point and Namestnikov made it 4-0 on second-period goals off Petr Mrazek, who replaced Howard.
NOTES: Bishop had four saves, whlle Howard stopped 12 of 13 shots.. … Tampa Bay is 6-8-2 without Stamkos, who is not expected back until mid-March. … Lightning C Tanner Richard made his NHL debut.
UP NEXT
Red Wings: At Florida on Friday night to complete a two-game trip.
Lightning: Host St. Louis on Thursday night.
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