With the way the game started, it looked like the Pittsburgh Penguins would end up on the side of the road like a little Florida roadkill. The Tampa Bay Lightning dominated the first period of play and built a 2-0 lead only to see it evaporate over the next two periods as the Penguins scored four straight goals, including one from the most unlikeliest of sources.
The main difference in the game is that the Penguins converted on the chances that the Lightning handed them (three of the four goals were scored off the rush) while Tristen Jarry, who had 39 saves on the night, prevented the Lightning from capitalizing on the Pittsburgh mistakes. Andrei Vasilevskiy was sharp in net, making 25 saves and not really having a shot at the three goals the team gave up on the night. Steven Stamkos and Tanner Jeannot had the goals for the Lightning
First Period
Well now. There was a 20-minute period of play we haven’t seen from the Lightning in a few games. After an early turnover led to Vasilevskiy having to make a stone-cold save on Jake Guentzel, it was all Lightning for the next 15 minutes or so. Not only were they racking up the perimeter shots, they were crowding the Penguins crease like it was spring break at Hammerhead Ranch Hotel and forcing Jarry to make multiple saves.
A long period of play in the zone led to a couple of shots and the Penguins defense scrambling around which allowed Victor Hedman a fairly good look at the net. His shot was tipped up by an unmarked Stamkos and over Jarry’s glove for a 1-0 lead. Trailing by one goal early and taking a penalty against the Lightning isn’t exactly the path to success and sure enough the Tampa Bay power play, which is hotter than an atomic lobster right now, made them pay.
It might have taken them most of the two minutes to actually get the power play set up, but when they did, they converted. Sergachev took a pass from Kucherov and drifted to the center of the ice. He slammed on the breaks and the defender guarding him slid past, which opened up a shooting lane. Sergy’s shot was on net and Anthony Cirelli and Tanner Jeannot battled it out as to who would swat home the rebound. It was ruled that Jeannot got his stick on it and was credited with the goal.
The Penguins had a power play after the 2-0 lead and while they were able to keep the puck in the zone, they couldn’t find the net and the Bolts killed it off and went back to putting up the shots on Jarry. After two nights of winning the expected goal battle and not having anything to really show for it, the Lightning had 82.89% of the expected goals and an 84.21% share of the shots on the ice at 5v5.
Second Period
Pittsburgh flipped the script in the second period as they were the ones that were dictating play for most of the 20 minutes. They kept the puck away from the Bolts except for the occasional foray into the zone for a shot or two. To make matters worse, two of the times the Lightning were in the attacking zone, they turned it over and it led to Penguins goals.
The first came courtesy of Jake Guentzel, who knocked down a pass by Nikita Kucherov and fed it up to Crosby. Sid the Kid may have a bit more grey hair on his head now, but he can still snipe it with the best of them and his shot beat Vasilevskiy cleanly between the blocker and the post.
Kucherov and Stamkos had a couple of chances to reestablish the two goal lead, but Jarry was up to the challenge. Despite getting outshot by a pretty wide margin, it looked like the Lightning would be able to triggerfish twist their way out of the period with the lead until they, yup you guessed it, turned the puck over again. This time it was Kucherov flinging a blind pass back to Nick Perbix who was handcuffed and couldn’t control it. That led to Evgeni Malkin and Drew O’Connor on a two-on-one. Malkin split Hedman’s wickets on the pass and Vasilevskiy wasn’t bendy enough to make it to the far post to stop O’Connor’s shot.
Third Period
The Lighting played well in the third period. Unfortunately, their best play came after Jeff Carter scored the go-ahead goal. Three Tampa Bay forwards got caught up ice and Marcus Petterson made a nice stretch pass to lead the Pens on another odd-man rush. The puck worked its way back to Carter on the near side post and he was able to slide it under Calvin de Haan’s stickcheck and Vasy’s pads.
From that point, the Lightning really controlled the play, allowing just one shot over an eight minute or so stretch. Their problem was that Jarry was a little too comfortable in net and was able to make the initial save without having to work hard on the follow-up shots like he did in the first period. Another power play came and went without the big bamboo and despite a ton of chances (38 scoring chances to be exact) they couldn’t find the game-tying goal.
It was another game where the Lightning racked up the shots (41) but could only convert them into two goals. In other words, just one more goal than Tristan Jarry scored tonight. That’s right, we had ourselves a legitimate goalie goal. With Vasilevskiy on the net, Jarry saw his chance on a puck that was trickling towards him and he launched a pineapple grenade down the ice, and split the posts for the first goal by a goaltender in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Lightning scoring is in a bit of a funk right now and they’re not finding a way to pull points out of these games. “It’s the same story as the last couple of games” is how the captain put it after the game before pointing out that the mistakes they made ended up in their net.
The Lines
The Goals
Steven Stamkos (Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov) 1-0 Lightning
Tanner Jeannot (Mikhail Sergachev, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 2-0 Lightning
Sidney Crosby (Jake Guentzel) 2-1 Lightning
Drew O’Connor (Evgeni Malkin, Kris LeTang) 2-2
Jeff Carter (Matt Nieto, Marcus Petterson) 3-2 Penguins
Tristan Jarry (unassisted) Empty Net, 4-2 Penguins
