It’s too bad Detroit dug themselves an early hole, otherwise we’d be celebrating in the Motor City.

For now, we’ll wait ’til game seven. We trailed 3-0 after 30 minutes of play, then essentially worked a 2-0 score in our favor the rest of the way.

Tampa changed nothing, meaning they stayed dirty once again. Maybe the frustration tricked us, but if it wasn’t for Petr Mrazek, we’d have trailed by even more. Kind of lackluster skating in front of our home crowd out of the gate.

But, after really taking it behind 3-0 midway in the following period, we finally put on our skates and laced them all the way up. Niklas Kronwall found Tomas Tatar, then delivered the hit of the playoffs before the horn sounded.

Trailing 3-1, a quick goal was key for a comeback. And right out of the third period, Tatar added just that. So, we were in contention down 3-2 most the final period. Unfortunately, many strong efforts never found the back of the net. Despite their ongoing dirtiness, we lost 5-2 on a late goal plus an empty netter.

Give us game seven.