Facing elimination, the Tampa Bay Lightning were tasked with winning on the road in Detroit if they wanted to keep their season alive. Early on, it didn't seem like much of a challenge as the Lightning jumped out to a quick lead. Detroit fought back to make it a game, but the Lightning were able to hang on to the lead before closing with a fury to secure a 5-2 win and force Game 7.
Things couldn't have gone much better for the Lightning early on. Tyler Johnson scored his fifth goal of the series to put Tampa Bay on the board early in the first period. Jason Garrison added another goal in the first and the Lightning were quickly up, 2-0. Johnson increased the lead in the second period with his second goal. While Tampa Bay was in commanding position with a 3-0 lead, it could have been up even more if not for a brilliant stick save from Petr Mrazek.
The Red Wings didn't go down easy, however, and answered the early Lightning offense with a pair of goals. Tomas Tatar made it a 3-1 game in the second period before adding another goal just minutes into the third period. The Red Wings pushed for an equalizing goal, but it didn't come. Instead, Alex Killorn scored to put Tampa Bay up 4-2 before Cedric Paquette added an empty net goal to put the exclamation point on the Game 6 victory.
The series will now head back to Tampa where the Lightning will host the Red Wings in a deciding Game 7 on Wednesday.