from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

The Lightning took an early lead, then kept the Wings at bay, winning 3-2.

It was the Lightning's 14th consecutive regular season victory over the Red Wings, dating to February 2016....

“It’s a great measuring stick, it’s the best team in the league, obviously some of their best players are some of the best players in the league at their positions,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “We didn’t rise to the occasion tonight. Not even close. Too many guys weren’t skating. You have to skate yourself out of pressure to get open. We self-induced mistakes.

“Their pressure was hard, but we did a poor job handling it. A lot of our guys, especially our young guy, they want to be elite players in this league. Well, we had a chance to see them first hand. We have another chance next week (the Wings host Tampa Thursday).”

The Wings’ power play was 1-for-5 and the unit mising Dylan Larkin (neck strain) – keyed by Andreas Athanasiou and Mantha – particularly struggled.

“I just know they got a chance to rise to the occasion and the unit wasn’t good enough,” Blashill said. “Dylan is a big piece of our team but everybody loses players. The other night a lot of guys on that unit were excellent, tonight not so much.”

more