Tampa eliminates Detroit in 5 games with a last minute goal.

A tough way to go out for the wings.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 7 years ago
Tampa eliminates Detroit in 5 games with a last minute goal.
Keystone Press.

I know hindsight is 20/20 and it's easy to second guess decisions once you know the outcome, but one has to wonder, given his performances for Detroit, if head coach Jeff Blashill would not have been better served to start goaltender Petr Mrazek from the very start of this series.

It doesn't really matter now because the Tampa Lightning will be advancing to the second round of the playoffs, the first team to do so in the 2016 season, after a relatively dominant 5 game series win over the Red Wings. It was a late game goal from Alex Killorn that sealed the deal with just over one minute to go left in the game, and while the game wasn't officially over at that point, the body language from both teams was telling.

Full credit to the Lightning, who did it without arguably their top forward in Steven Stamkos, and without one of their top two defenseman in Anton Stralman, and managed to do it in short order despite those missing pieces. Full credit also to Ryan Callahan who worked his butt off to get to the puck and set up Killorn for what was the eventual game winner.

Now the Lightning must prepare for Round 2, while Detroit has a great deal of work to do in preparation for next season, including preparing for the possibility of a future without Pavel Datsyuk, who has been one of the pillars of the franchise for the past 15 years.

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