Bolts Look to Tie Franchise Record For Wins in a Season

By Jake Ricker

Tonight the Bolts will look to get their 3rd win in a row after defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2 on Tuesday night. Tonight they will be facing the Detroit Red Wings, this will be the final matchup between these two teams with the first one ending in a 3-1 Lightning victory, and the second ending in a 6-5 Lighting shootout victory and the third one ending in a 3-2 Lightning victory. The Bolts will look to get the series sweep with a win tonight. Let’s take a quick look at how these two teams match up before puck drop.

Tampa Outlook

The Bolts will once again look to further themselves from the rest of the NHL with another win tonight. Nikita Kucherov remains the NHL points leader with 108 and will look to break the Bolts franchise record tonight. The Bolts could be without Dan Girardi and Anton Stralman as they are currently listed as day to day. Coming into tonight, the Bolts own the top-ranked power play with a 28.5% success rate. The Bolts also have the top-ranked penalty kill NHL with an 85.6% success rate. So far the Bolts have dominated the Red Wings this season and they will look to continue that tonight. With a win tonight the Bolts can tie the Franchise record in wins (54).

Clinching Scenarios

While the Bolts have already clinched a playoff spot they can still clinch the division and presidents trophy. With a win tonight the Bolts will need only 6 Points to clinch the division. As for the president’s trophy, a Win tonight the Bolts will need only 7 points to clinch, However, With a Boston win, it will change to 6 points as well.

Tampa Lines

Offense

Palat-Stamkos-Miller

Johnson-Point-Kucherov

Killorn-Cirelli-Joseph

Gourde-Paquette-Callahan

Defense

Hedman-Sergachev

McDonagh-Cernak

Coburn-Rutta

Goalies

Domingue

Vasilevskiy (Likely Starter)

 

Detroit Outlook

The Wings are coming off a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night. The Wings will have an even taller task tonight as they face the best team in the NHL once again. Coming into tonight, the Wings are ranked 23rd on the power play with a 16.8% success rate. As for the penalty kill the Wings are ranked 27th in the NHL with a 77.8% success rate. The Wings will have to be better on special teams as they face the Bolts who own the best special teams in the NHL. The Wings will be without a few key players such as Dylan Larkin and Mike Green, so everyone will need to step up their game. Teams have been able to beat the Bolts by taking away a lot of their time and space, the Wings will need to do just that if they want a shot at winning.

Detroit Lines

Offense

Bertuzzi – Athanasiou – Mantha

Vanek – Nielsen – Zadina

Abdelkader – Glendening – Helm

Rasmussen – De La Rose – Ehn

Defense

Dekeyser – Hronek

Ericsson – Daley

Kronwall – Bowey

Goalies

Howard (Likely Starter)

Bernier

 

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for live updates of tonight’s game @bay_bolts!