“Playing our best”: Marco Kasper's heroics keep Red Wings in playoff hunt

Marco Kasper was the overtime hero, finding the back of the net for the second time in the evening at 3:22 of OT to send the Detroit Red Wings to a wild 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Friday. Marco Kasper's game-winner resulted from a turnover created by Simon Edvinsson in the neutral zone. The 20-year-old forward took the puck into the left circle and snapped a wrister far post past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Marco Kasper and Patrick Kane lead Red Wings' rally


Marco Kasper scored the game-tying 3-3 goal in the late third period, finishing a setup from Alex DeBrincat . His heroics ended Detroit's (37-35-7) two-game skid and got them out of the playoff elimination zone, with slim hopes remaining three games away. They are six points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the final wild card in the East.

“I think they were kind of tired,” Marco Kasper said. “Edvinsson made a good play, so I just skated by and scored. We've had a couple of tough losses, which hurt a lot. We talked about being a team and going out there playing our best on every shift. Every minute we've got to try to give it our all, and we did a good job of that today.”

Patrick Kane added a goal and an assist, and Tyler Motte had a goal. Goaltender Alex Lyon made 18 saves.

The Red Wings' coach, Todd McLellan , had nothing but praise for the team. “They showed each other a lot, not necessarily what they showed me – it's way more important they play for their teammates," McLellan said. "We had a good discussion this morning about what we expected from each other, and I thought they played to it. Didn't look [it] right off the bat, getting scored on early, but we stayed with it and found a way to scrape out a win in a building that's really tough to play in.”

Also read: Patrick Kane scripts history as Detroit Red Wings beat Carolina Hurricanes to stay in playoff contention

Game highlights

• 1st Period: Cirelli scored a breakaway 61 seconds into it.
  
• 2nd Period: Kane evened it with a one-timer. Motte put Detroit ahead 2-1 before Goncalves tied it up on his first NHL goal.
  
• 3rd Period: Goncalves scored again to make Tampa 3-2 up. Kasper tied it with 7 minutes left.
  
• OT: Kasper capped the comeback, slamming home the winner at 3:22.
  
• Kane has 354 career multi-point games under his belt — four behind Mike Modano's record for most by an American-born player.
  
• Kucherov played in his 800th NHL game but was held scoreless.
  
• Hagel extended his point streak to three games and has 14 points in his last 12.