March 12, 2026; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Corey Perry (10) targets Detroit Red Wings goalkeeper John Gibson (36) in the first period at Benchmark International Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Image Gage Goncalves and Jake Guentzel each scored twice as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the visiting Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Thursday night for their third win since the Winter Olympics break.
Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov had two assists and recorded his 1,100th career point, becoming the 72nd player in NHL history to reach the milestone.
Goncalves tied a season career high with 10 goals as the Lightning moved to 3-6-0 after the festivities in Milan.
Brayden Point had two helpers for Tampa Bay, and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 24 shots.
JT Comper scored while netminder John Gibson stopped 25 shots as Detroit slipped to 4-7-2 in its last 13 games.
The Red Wings announced that captains Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp, two centers who suffered lower-body injuries in last week’s respective losses against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, will be sidelined for two weeks.
The ball was evenly distributed for most of the first half, but the away team entered its first power play when Detroit defender Justin Faulk was caught by Kucherov at 16:14.
The Lightning nearly scored a first man advantage in the closing seconds of the first period, but Faulk stopped Jake Guentzel to keep the frame scoreless as the home team maintained an 8-5 shot advantage.
That power play continued into the second and Kucherov quickly flipped a pass to Guentzel. The winger then scored his seventh power-play goal, beating Gibson on the glove side just 49 seconds into the period.
With 3 minutes and 19 seconds left in the second half, Vasilevskiy blocked Marco Kasper’s open list to preserve the club’s one-goal lead, and despite being up 18-18, the first half ended with a shot.
With 95 seconds to go in the third, a double deflection in front of Gibson scored his second Lightning goal, giving Goncalves his career-high in a season.
Compher, who replaced Larkin as a top-notch center, took a shot from Alex DeBrincat at 7:05 to cut the Red Wings’ deficit to 2-1.
Goncalves scored another goal at 16:22 and the game was stopped 33 seconds later on Guentzel’s empty-net goal.
–Field level media
