Sunday, 4 a.m.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are trying to squeeze in a bit of a hot streak before the season takes a break.
The Lightning won their third straight game Saturday afternoon, calming a hot Detroit team in a 6-3 victory. The Bolts, who have scored 15 goals in those three wins, remain third in the Atlantic Division of the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
Tampa Bay got off to a fast start, scoring twice in the first three minutes of the game and four times in the first 15 minutes. But Detroit pushed back to come within 4-3 going into the third period.
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The Bolts controlled their final period, in which rookie Dylan Duke scored his first NHL goal.
Brandon Hagel scored twice for the Bolts — his sixth goal in five games. Hagel has 26 goals on the season. Also scoring were Eric Cernak, Brayden Point (his 30th) and Nick Paul (his 15th).
The goal by Duke may be the most memorable. It came against a Wings team that was on a seven-game winning streak, in an arena not far from where he played college hockey (at the University of Michigan) and at a crucial point in the game.
Nikita Kucherov had three assists for the Bolts.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy won his 24th game of the season. He stopped 34 shots of 37. Vasilevskiy has won four of his last five starts.
The Bolts play their final game before the four-nation tournament today in Montreal at 1 p.m.