Without Glendening, Wings blow two-goal lead, game to Tampa Bay
DETROIT -- Any doubts about how important Luke Glendening is to the Detroit Red Wings were answered loudly, clearly and rather painfully Thursday night when he skated into the trainer's room to have his hand sewn up with 7 1/2 minutes remaining and his team holding what appeared to be an insurmountable two-goal lead.
Just 3 1/2 minutes later, the score was tied. And the guy Glendening has been assigned to check in this series did all the damage. Glendening, arguably the Wings' most consistent player through the first four games -- if not their most valuable player -- didn't come out for the overtime either. And again, the ever-dangerous Tyler Johnson roamed free enough to score the overtime game-winner that gave the left-for-dead Lightning new life in this series.
The battle shifts to Tampa Bay for Game 5 on Saturday with the best-of-seven series tied at two games apiece.
Before Glendening's injury, the Wings appeared to be headed toward a stranglehold on this series.
"I thought we played good. We had them in big-time trouble," Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "I believe they stole this game like we stole Game 1 in their building. So to me it should be 2-2. Now it's the best of three. Let's play. We'll get regrouped and get on with it."
Glendening, a premier defensive player who is tied with Pavel Datsyuk for the goal-scoring lead in this series with two each, was injured in a scrum involving all 10 players in front of the penalty boxes. He was penalized for roughing, but instead of taking a seat in the box he skated off the ice into the trainer's room.
Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman went off for roughing as well, and on the ensuing four-on-four situation, Johnson scored a nice goal when he skated around Darren Helm (which rarely happens, by the way), and beat Petr Mrazek with a well-placed shot between the left post and the goaltender's right shoulder at 14:34 of the third period.
That seemed to open the floodgates, and Tampa Bay rode a wave of momentum thereafter.
"I think we'd gone probably eight periods without scoring a goal in this building, but as soon as we got that one, we grew a couple of inches on the bench," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "It was like a weight off our shoulders, and clearly the game changed at the moment we scored that goal. You could just tell our guys had that fire in them that was not going to be put out, and that was a hell of an effort."
To be precise, that goal ended a drought of 119:08 for the Lightning at the Joe. Mrazek threw a 3-0 shutout in Game 2 on Tuesday night, and that followed a 4-0 win against Tampa Bay in their final regular-season meeting on March 28. In fact, Mrazek had kept the Lightning off the board for a remarkable 185:18 -- dating to Dec. 15, 2013.
But this game was not so much about what Mrazek did or didn't do -- he was faultless on all three goals that followed careless turnovers and defensive mix-ups. It was about Glendening's absence when the game -- and potentially this series -- hung in the balance.
Cooper didn't mince words when he was asked what Glendening's absence meant -- for both teams.
"Very astute observation by you," Cooper said to his questioner. "I've watched him for a long time. I watched him in the minors. I watched him when they (the Grand Rapids Griffins) beat us in the Calder Cup. And he's, I don't know how to describe him. He's an extremely responsible player, and there's not a lot of guys out there like him.
"He's done a heck of a job on our guys, and they lost a player that plays an extremely important role for them. You look back now and we came back to win the game, so it was potentially a huge factor ... So there's no question that it had an effect."
Just 1:17 after his goal cut the Detroit lead to 2-1, Johnson carried the puck deep into the Detroit zone and delivered a pass to the crease, where Ondrej Palat managed to skate past Jonathan Ericsson to one-time the puck past Mrazek for the tying goal, with 4:09 to play and the Wings suddenly on their heels.
The Lightning didn't let up, and struck quickly in overtime. Another turnover, another botched assignment in front of the net -- precisely the kinds of problems the Wings encountered in their late-season fall in the standings, problems they appeared to finally have under control -- and Johnson scored again from a difficult angle into a yawning net behind Mrazek.
Game over just 2:25 into overtime. And suddenly the Wings are back to being the overwhelming underdogs as they were when the series began. Now they have to find a way to win another game in Tampa against a team that's awfully hard to beat on its own ice if they have any chance to advance to the second round.
The good news, if you're one of those who try to see the glass half full: Glendening figures to play in Game 5 on Saturday, though he was pretty guarded about his injury.
"Nothing too serious, so it's good," he said, his hand sporting a bandage and wrap covering the laceration. "It's frustrating. I thought we played a good game, but in the end we came up short. Things like that are going to happen in the playoffs. We've just got to come back in Game 5.
This much we now know for certain: The Wings have a much better chance to do that with Glendening doing what he does best. Just ask Lightning coach Cooper.
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