• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Red Wings look to continue dominance of Lightning

Nov 29, 2007 - 2:57 PM Tampa Bay (10-12-2) at Detroit (16-6-2) 7:30 pm EST

DETROIT (Ticker) - The Tampa Bay Lightning are facing one of the best teams in the NHL at the wrong time.

Tampa Bay is 0-4-1 in its last five games and on Thursday visits a Detroit Red Wings team tied for the NHL points lead with 34.

Thanks to a recent slide by the Ottawa Senators, the Red Wings have tied Ottawa with a league-high 16 wins.

Detroit's 5-3 victory over Calgary on Tuesday snapped a two-game losing streak. Pavel Datsyuk had two goals and an assist for the Red Wings, 3-4-1 in their last eight games after starting the season 13-2-1.

The Lightning lost four consecutive games by one goal before dropping a 5-1 decision at Chicago on Wednesday. Nick Tarnasky had Tampa Bay's lone goal on the power play in the third period and former Lightning goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin had 21 saves. Tampa Bay center Ryan Craig missed his first game (left knee injury).

Thursday's game with be the only game between the two teams, who didn't face each other last season. Detroit has dominated the Lightning, posting a 19-5-2 record against them since the series began in the 1992-93 season.