Red Wings 3, Lightning 2

[April 17, 2015]  TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning, which had the NHL's best home record in the regular season, opened the playoffs with a home loss Thursday night.

Detroit center Pavel Datsyuk scored twice to lead the Red Wings to a 3-2 win at Amalie Arena.

The Red Wings, seeded third in the Atlantic Division, won just one of four regular-season meetings with the Lightning but took the playoff opener despite being outshot 27-10 in the first two periods.

Detroit took a chance by starting Petr Mrazek, 23, in goal over veteran Jimmy Howard, 31, but Mrazek played superbly, making 44 saves.

The Red Wings opened a 3-1 lead early in the third period on a short-handed goal. Center Luke Glendening tracked down a loose puck deep in the Tampa Bay end, made a spin move to beat center Valtteri Filppula, then fired a backhander from behind past goalie Ben Bishop.

Tampa Bay pulled within one with 11:34 left after defenseman Nikita Nesterov scored his first career playoff goal. But he missed on a power play shortly after -- the Lightning finished 0 of 7 with the man-advantage, including a six-on-four for the final 12.8 seconds.

NOTES: The Lightning got three key players back from injury for Thursday's playoff opener. D Braydon Coburn returned after missing 14 games with a foot injury, D Andrej Sustr was back after missing six games with an upper-body injury, and C Alex Killorn played after missing three games with an undisclosed injury. The only Tampa Bay player still ailing is D Jason Garrison, who missed his seventh game with an upper-body injury. ... Lightning rookie LW Jonathan Drouin and D Mark Barberio were healthy scratches. ... Detroit LW Justin Abdelkader missed a 12th straight game with an upper-body injury, and G Jonas Gustavsson (head) and LW Erik Cole (upper body) remained sidelined. The Red Wings scratched D Brendan Smith, D Jakub Kindl, RW Daniel Cleary and LW Teemu Pulkkinen.

[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.