Red Wings receive early holiday gift from Lightning, end six-game skid

Detroit − The Red Wings received a bit of an early holiday gift Wednesday from Tampa Bay.

Elmer Soderblom broke a tie early in the third period with a gift-wrapped goal, then Dylan Larkin scored on a bad angle on Lightning goalie Brian Elliott, igniting the Wings as they ended a six-game winless streak with a 7-4 victory.

Tampa cut the lead to 5-4 on Nikita Kucherov's 13th goal, at 16 minutes 13 seconds, sneaking a shot past Wings goaltender Ville Husso.

But David Perron clinched it with his 11th goal, an empty netter, at 17:27, and Michael Rasmussen added further insurance with another empty netter, Rasmussen's second goal of the game, sending the Wings to a needed victory.

"It feels real good, especially against that team and in our division," Larkin said. "We had a great performance. Things didn't go our way the whole game, but we responded and stuck together and played hard, did a good job on the penalty kill and it's just a massive two points."

On Soderblom's tie-breaking goal, Elliott attempted to backhand the puck from behind the net but passed it directly to Joe Veleno near the corner. Veleno quickly found Soderblom alone in front, and Soderblom easily tapped in his fourth goal at 3 minutes, 48 seconds.

BOX SCORE: Red Wings 7, Lightning 4

Larkin then snapped a shot from a sharp angle that somehow eluded Elliott, Larkin's second of the night and 12th of the season at 9:46, making it 5-3.

The Larkin, Rasmussen and Perron line was excellent, with Larkin, who is battling through an upper-body injury, leading the charge.

"He's (Larkin) obviously battling through something but he's been great," coach Derek Lalonde said. "High compete (level), Ras has been helped him, obviously he needs a center to take draws, but just the battle and compete and he was excellent tonight, the whole line was."

Rasmussen has proved with a spark while playing on the wing, adding grit and at least Wednesday, a scoring touch.

"Everyone was doing their jobs well, we had a real good forecheck, we had some good plays overall," Rasmussen said. "Everyone was competing and getting to their spots and it went well for us."

Lalonde was pleased the way the Wings didn't get down or lost confidence through the six-game slump.

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"Anyone who watched us, we've been better than that," Lalonde said. "I wouldn't call it unlucky, just not complete in our game and I just thought we got what we deserved tonight. I didn't like we gave them early offense early, but for the most part we've been in this situation tied going into the third (period) three or four times of late and we've been unable to finish it off. (Wednesday) we did, and it feels pretty good."

Olli Maatta, added the other Wings (14-11-7) goal, while goaltender Ville Husso stopped 34 shots.

Brayden Point, Alex Killorn and Ross Colton scored the Lightning (20-11-1) goals.

It was the second consecutive win this season for Wings coach Derek Lalonde against his old team (which now has former Wings coach Jeff Blashill as an assistant on its staff).

The Wings are actually now 6-3-2 in their last 10 games against Tampa, after a long dominant, Lightning stretch.

"They've been conference champs three straight years, back to back Stanley Cups, we're a young team and we've added some pieces but I'm just proud of the guys," Larkin said.

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"How we played tonight, the last time, I respect what they've done in the past but when you're on the ice you have to play and play hard and it's fun to play in those games, to be in the battle and both times we've played them this year we've been in it and it's been fun, playoff (type) hockey."

Lalonde felt as if the confidence hadn't waned within the locker room despite the winless streak.

"The group has done a good job judging themselves on performance," Lalonde said. "The morale seems pretty high and it is because in that 0-4-2 stretch, we've played some good hockey. Not enough, not consistent enough in all areas of our game to be successful, but because our play has been good and solid at times, that's why morale has been up.

"It hasn't been a whole lot different in our 0-4-2 stretch from some of our good stretches. We just want to build off a good point the other night (overtime loss in Washington) against a real good team and it's about us and team performance."

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tkulfan