Tampa Bay Lightning might be behind by two goals, but they played a pretty decent first period overall...in the beginning.
For the first five minutes, Tampa Bay’s defense played smart, with some blocked shots and aggressive play in the neutral zone.
At 4:58 of the first period, Pavel Datsyuk scored the game’s first goal after the Lightning turned it over in their own zone, even after winning the prior face-off. Datsyuk was initially stopped by Dwayne Roloson, but Datysuk got his own rebound, making it a 1-0 game.
Before and after Datsyuk’s goal, both team’s defenses were forcing turnovers, especially Tampa Bay. Lightning defense was rather aggressive on the Detroit defensemen in first period, but that changed.
In the last half of the first period, the Detroit Red Wings began shooting at just about anything, eventually outshooting the Lightning 17-8 when the first period’s time expired.
Detroit then scored another goal, after Valtteri Filpula’s quick legs took advantage of Pavel Kubina, allowing Filpula to pass it to Jonathan Ericsson, who scored from the slot. Roloson probably never saw the shot; Brett Clark was standing right in front of him. The bad change from Tampa Bay prior to the goal was another reason Detroit now has a 2-0 lead.
No goaltender is envying Roloson right now. He is keeping the Lightning in this one and it’s only the first period. Without him, this game could easily be out of hand for Tampa Bay.