Red Wings 4, Lightning 3

 

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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -Chris Osgood needed some help from his Detroit teammates to remain undefeated against Tampa Bay.

Henrik Zetterberg, Mikael Samuelsson and Johan Franzen scored third-period goals, and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Thursday night.

Pavel Datsyuk also scored for the defending Stanley Cup champions, and Osgood had 15 saves to improve to 17-0 against Tampa Bay.

"I think Ozzie would thank his teammates," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "Ozzie bails us out some nights, and we bailed him out tonight."

Detroit, which entered with the NHL's top power-play unit, converted 2 of 5 opportunities.

"We know we have good players on it, and we had a good start on it," Zetterberg said. "It gives us confidence to go in and do what we want and make the right plays. When you score goals, the confidence keeps growing."

Mark Recchi, Jussi Jokinen and Matt Pettinger scored for the Lightning, who were outshot 39-18 and lost their third straight.

The Lightning paid for three penalties taken in an 18-second span during the final half-minute of the second period. Zetterberg and Samuelsson scored on the advantages to give Detroit a 3-2 lead early in the third.

"For about four minutes in the second period we were brain dead," Lightning coach Barry Melrose said. "Three terrible penalties. You can't give the best team in the world a two-minute, 5-on-3 and another two-minute, 5-on-4. Detroit doesn't do that. Detroit doesn't beat itself. Tonight we beat ourselves."

Zetterberg tied it during a two-man advantage with an in-close goal at 1:38. Detroit went ahead on Samuelsson's shot from the top of the right circle at 2:30.

Franzen extended the lead to 4-2 at 9:21 before Pettinger cut the Lightning's deficit to a goal with 4:18 left.

Tampa Bay, which had scored just 30 goals in its previous 15 games, took a 2-0 lead in the first on goals by Recchi and Jokinen.

Recchi put the Lightning ahead from the right circle at 14:09 with his 1,392th NHL point. That moved him past Brett Hull into 20th place on the league's career list.

Jokinen doubled the lead with a power-play goal with 1:41 left in the period.

"We were doing fine until we got those (penalties)," Recchi said. "It really just changed the momentum of the game. There's some bright spots and some things we've got to keep working on."

Detroit dominated the second, outshooting the Lightning 18-3, but scored just once on Olie Kolzig when Datsyuk pulled Detroit within 2-1 at 1:33. The Red Wings outshot Tampa Bay 13-1 during the first 15 minutes of the period.

Notes: Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom became the ninth NHL defenseman to reach 950 points, when he assisted on Datsyuk's goal. ... Red Wings RW Daniel Cleary missed his second straight game because of an eye infection. ... Tampa Bay LW Ryan Malone (lower body) sat out for a second consecutive game. ... Birgit and David Smith, the wife and son of Medal of Honor recipient, Sgt. First Class Paul R. Smith, dropped the ceremonial first puck on military night. Paul Smith, a Tampa native, was awarded the nation's highest medal in 2005 after being killed in combat at the Baghdad Airport two years earlier.