Last year at this time the Tampa Bay Lightning had just been ousted from the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Montreal Canadians in a four game sweep. Last year’s Lightning were young, undersized, and without top goaltender Ben Bishop due to wrist surgery, so the expectation for them was not super high.

However, this year thanks to a few moves in the offseason, and at the trade deadline and with a healthy Ben Bishop the sky was the limit for the Bolts as they entered the 2015 playoffs. Despite these improvements the Lightning are not playing as well as anticipated as they are tied two games apiece to the Detroit Red Wings and need to improve their play in order to win the series and move on to the next round.

Last night the Bolts were on the road at Joe Louis Arena playing a pivotal game four against the Wings. The Lightning have been dominant at home this season, going 32-8-1 and having the highest scoring offense in the league but, have been rather mediocre on the road going 18-16-7. The difference of being on the road rather than home showed up big as the Lightning were very lackluster and did not look like they were into the game and they suffered a 3-0 defeat. Defensive errors were committed, passes were missing there marks and the Bolts, who are known for their speed, looked slow and got trapped at center ice for the majority of the game. Game four started out okay as the Bolts and the Wings were tied at zero after one period of play.

However, during the second period Detroit pounced on a Lightning line shift error to take a one to nothing. the Red Wings then scored again later in the period after Lightning goalie Ben Bishop made a nice save and then the puck bounced into the air, off his stick, hitting the crossbar, and eeked across the line increasing the deficit to two to nothing. All seemed lost as time winned down but, with 5:34 left in the third period center tyler Johnson streaked down the left side of the ice and beat Red Wings goalie Peter Merazk. Then one minute later Johnson set up the second Lightning goal on a beautiful pass to forward Ondrej Palat tying the game at two. Then overtime hit and the Bolts struck fast. Defenseman Victor Headman pushed forward from the blueline and saw a wide open Tyler Johnson who buried the puck into the top corner giving the Lightning the win.