Friday, 4 a.m.
Is it over? Is the plunge off of the cliff complete? Are the Tampa Bay Lightning through with their slump yet?
Well, for a night, it was, anyway.
The struggling Tampa Bay Lightning at least put their troubles on hold for a night Thursday night at Benchmark International Arena. The Bolts beat Atlantic Division rival Detroit, 4-1.
They had been 1-6 in their last seven games.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 24 of 25 shots for his 30th win of the season (against 11 losses). It's the ninth straight season Vasilevskiy has won at least 30.
Gage Goncalves and Jake Guentzel each scored two goals for Tampa Bay. Goncalves now has 10 goals and Guentzel has 29. Nikita Kucherov had two assists, giving him 1,100 points for his career.
J.T. Compher scored Detroit's only goal.
The Lightning are home at Benchmark on Saturday night at 7 p.m.