Palat's power-play goal lifts Bolts over Red Wings

[April 20, 2016]  (The Sports Xchange) - Ondrej Palat's power-play goal with 2:59 left gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena and a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference first round best-of-7 series.

Game 5 is Thursday at Amalie Arena in Tampa.

Nikita Kucherov scored two power-play goals for Tampa Bay. Jonathan Drouin had three assists and Ben Bishop made 26 saves.

Darren Helm and Gustav Nyquist scored or Detroit. Petr Mrazek made 30 saves.

Palat tipped in Drouin's pass for Palat's first goal of the series with Jonathan Ericsson in the penalty box for crosschecking.

Detroit's Dylan Larkin hit the post from in front with a little over seven minutes left in the third period.

The Red Wings scored twice in the final six minutes of the second period to tie the score at 2.

Helm made it 2-1 with 5:07 left in the second period when he put in a loose puck from the crease. It was his first goal of the series.

Nyquist tied it with 10 seconds left in the period. He one-timed a shot past Bishop from below the right circle off a pass from Riley Sheahan. It was Nyquist's first goal of the playoffs and his fourth goal in 34 playoff games.

Kucherov's first power-play goal 5:41 into the game gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead. Kucherov beat Mrazek on the short side with a one-timer from the right faceoff dot after a pass from Tyler Johnson. The goal came nine seconds after Justin Abdelkader went off for holding.

Kucharev's second power-play goal of the game made it 2-0 with 9:29 left in the second period. He put in a one-timer from the slot for his fifth goal of the series.

The Lightning had 14 shots in the first period after managing 16 shots in Game 3.

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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