NHL playoffs: Detroit Red Wings at Tampa Bay Lightning (Game 1) - April 13, 2016

Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman checks Red Wings defenseman Kyle Quincey in Game 1.

(The Associated Press)

TAMPA, Fla. - It has been 14 years since the Detroit Red Wings won a playoff series after dropping the first two games.

They would rather not face that challenge against the Tampa Bay Lightning, putting added importance on Game 2 tonight at Amalie Arena (7 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit).

Jimmy Howard will start in goal and the Red Wings are expected to dress the same lineup and start with the same line combinations they used in Game 1. They switched a couple of their defense pairs, however, putting Danny DeKeyser with Jonathan Ericsson and Kyle Quincey with Mike Green. Niklas Kronwall remains with Alexey Marchenko.

The Red Wings must do a better job against Tyler Johnson's line, with Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn. They accounted for all three Lightning goals in the opener and Detroit's top defense pairing of DeKeyser and Quincey were on the ice for each goal.

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said final decisions about the lineup will be made after the pregame warmup.

"The one thing I'd say about D pairs is we haven't throughout the course of a lot of the year necessarily had just three pairs," Blashill said. "We mix and match them throughout the game, especially against a four-line team, so we get the right matchups against each line."

Ericsson said Johnson's line is tough to contain because of its speed.

"They're gaining a lot of speed in the neutral zone, which sometimes can be tough to gap up on that," Ericsson said. "They're pretty evasive. You want to be on the right side. They're good at creating room for themselves and that's something we've got to try and be even better at, to stay even closer and not give them as much room to be building up speed in the neutral zone, because they're really good coming into our own end, making good plays and making a good first attempt to attack the net."

Said Detroit's Niklas Kronwall: "Speed, skill, talent, determination. They got the whole package. But I think one thing we need to do is take away more time and space from them. When they get that extra step on you they make it hard. If we can be there right away I think it's going to make it harder for them."

The last time the Red Wings came back from an 0-2 series deficit to prevail was against the Vancouver Canucks in the first round in 2002. They went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Here are tonight's anticipates lines for the Red Wings:

Justin Abdelkader-Pavel Datsyuk-Henrik Zetterberg

Gustav Nyquist-Riley Sheahan-Tomas Tatar

Darren Helm-Brad Richards-Dylan Larkin

Andreas Athanasiou-Luke Glendening-Joakim Andersson

Tomas Jurco and Teemu Pulkkinen are expected to be scratched.

On defense:

Danny DeKeyser-Jonathan Ericsson

Niklas Kronwall-Alexey Marchenko

Kyle Quincey-Mike Green

Brendan Smith is expected to be scratched.

In goal:

Jimmy Howard (starting)

Petr Mrazek

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