In a game where a couple of superstars were on the brink of some major milestones, it was a player returning from an injury that played the hero. Sidney Crosby didn’t score his 600th goal, and for only the second time this season, Nikita Kucherov was held pointless, but Brayden Point came back from a four-game absence to score twice, including the game-winning goal in overtime. The Lightning overcame a 2-0 deficit in the third period on goals from Point and Anthony Cirelli to tie things up before Point scored in overtime for the 3-2 victory.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, 17 saves, wasn’t tested often, but he made the stops when he needed to as he picked up the victory. At the other end of the ice, Tristan Jarry returned from a stint in the AHL to stop 32 shots as the Lightning posted their second-highest shot total of the year with 35.
Despite some early turnovers, the Lightning dominated puck possession as Natural Stat Trick credited them with a season-high 40 scoring chances and 16 high-danger chances while the Pens could only muster 7 high-danger chances of their own. It was the fourth straight solid defensive outing for the Bolts and they ran their current winning streak to three, while snapping their three-game road losing streak.
First Period:
The scoreboard didn’t reflect the Lightning’s effort in the first period. Despite having the majority of the zone time, and as the benefactors of not one, but two power plays, the Bolts should have been in a better place than down a goal after 20 minutes.
Unfortunately, effort isn’t always reflected in the score during a game. One bad shift by the fourth line led to the game-opening goal for the Penguins. Just seconds after Tristan Jarry made a nice save on a wide-open Anthony Cirelli, the Penguins capitalized on a failed clear by the Bolts.
J.J. Moser made a nice play to shut off Bryan Rust at the left circle, but Mikey Eyssimont wasn’t able to clear the loose puck as he was knocked off of the play. Pittsburgh kept the puck in and Marcus Pettersson hit Jesse Puljujarvi with a diagonal high-to-low pass at the back post that was an easy tap-in with Eyssimont a step behind him.
Jesse Puljujarvi (Marcus Pettersson, Sam Poulin) 1-0 Penguins
The Lightning had a solid amount of zone time for most of the game, but couldn’t solve Jarry, who stopped the ten shots Tampa Bay fired at him. In addition to the stop on Cirelli, he also made a nice combination save on Conor Geekie and Michel Chaffee with the Lightning on the power play. A later power play saw Jake Guentzel deflect a point shot from Nikita Kucherov off of the iron.
While the Bolts didn’t score on their four minutes of man-advantage, they generated 11 shot attempts, 4 scoring chances, with 2 high-danger ones. Credit to Pittsburgh for blocking 4 shots short-handed, and 9 overall.
Second Period:
Lather, rinse, repeat. If anything, the Lightning played even better in the second period than the first, especially at 5v5 where they out-chanced the Pens 11-4 and out-shot them 11-3 at even strength. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh did one thing that the Lightning didn’t do in the first period – score on the power play.
With one of their top penalty killers, Luke Glendening, in the box, the Lightning fell victim to a nice passing play as Rickard Rackell snapped home a one-timer off of a pass from Sidney Crosby and beat Vasilevskiy up high. The puck movement was precise and Rackell picked the corner like a pro to double the lead.
Rickard Rackell (Sidney Crosby, Matt Grzelcyk) Power Play, 2-0 Penguins
For most of the period, especially before the goal, the Lightning spent time in the Pittsburgh zone and stayed true to their offense as they worked the puck back to the point for shots. Many of the shots got through, but Jarry made the initial save, and his defense in front of him prevented any second-chance opportunities.
The Lightning’s best chance came early in the period when Gage Goncalves found an open Mitchell Chaffee on a two-on-one. Jarry was able to get across the crease and deflect the puck just enough with his big ol’ trapper to prevent the puck from going in.
Through forty minutes the Lightning had 47 shot attempts, 14 of which Pittsburgh blocked, and another 11 were forced wide. That is one of the drawbacks of their style of offense – if the initial shots are blocked or go wide, there isn’t much available for second chances. Some credit must go to Jarry though, on the occasions that the Lightning did get a shot through, like JJ Moser’s shot through a crowd of sticks and bodies, he made the save. He did not look like a guy carrying a goals against average over five into the game.
Despite being down two goals, the Lightning had, for the most part, played pretty well through the first two-thirds of the game. On the broadcast, Dave Randorf repeatedly pointed out Pittsburgh’s struggles with the lead (they’ve blown seven leads in the third period) in hopes of manifesting another one.
Third Period:
It has to be tough to be a Penguins’ fan this season. In their last game, they blew a three-goal lead to the San Jose Sharks before pulling out a shootout victory. All year long they’ve seen leads disappear late in the game, and tonight was no different.
The Bolts came out firing in the final frame as they generated 35 shot attempts and 19 (!) scoring chances over the last 20 minutes. The offensive deluge was even more impressive considering they were down a forward as Nick Paul didn’t skate in the third period, apparently suffering an injury at some point in the second.
Pittsburgh hung on as long as they could, but things started to unravel on a bad line change. It’s nice to see it happen to other teams after the Lightning have been been on the wrong end of bad switches throughout the season.
Darren Raddysh made a nice playing his own zone as he won a puck battle and was able to slip the puck to Ryan McDonagh. The veteran knew that the Pens were changing and he first the puck up the boards to Point, who was all alone on the far side of the ice. He took the puck behind the Pittsburgh net, and when the Pens failed to cover him, he roofed a backhander past Jarry.
Brayden Point (Ryan McDonagh, Darren Raddysh) 2-1 Penguins
With the their deficit cut in half, the Bolts didn’t stop. Sustained zone time led to the blue liners (Victor Hedman and Darren Raddysh) to launch some shots in the general direction of the net. The key was the puck recovery by the Lightning, and it was Anthony Cirelli behind the net that gathered in a puck and brought it out to the front. With Brandon Hagel parked in the crease, Cirelli tried to hit him with a pass, but Jarry got his stick on it. Unfortunately for the Penguins goaltender he deflected it past himself and into the net.
Anthony Cirelli (Victor Hedman, Darren Raddysh) 2-2
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The Bolts had time to find the game-winner in the third period, but couldn’t beat Jarry.
Overtime:
The unlikely trio of Brayden Point, Conor Geekie, and JJ Moser ended things with just over a minute to play in the extra frame. Geekie brought the puck in and gave it to Moser, who looked like he might have an opening to let the shot go, but Sidney Crosby broke it up on a back-check. The only issues for the Penguins is that Jarry had come out to play the shot, and wasn’t able to scramble back into position when Point recovered the loose puck behind the goal-line. Point had enough space to tuck the puck into the net with Jarry well out of the crease.
Brayden Point (JJ Moser, Conor Geekie) 3-2 Lightning
The Charts:
The Lines:
Tampa Bay:
Jake Guentzel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Nick Paul
Gage Goncalves – Conor Geekie – Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons – Luke Glendening – Mikey Eyssimont
Victor Hedman – JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Darren Raddysh
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Pittsburgh:
Anthony Beauviller – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell
Michael Bunting – Evgeni Malkin – Bryan Rust
Jesse Puljujarvi – Drew O’Connor – Sam Poulin
Matt Nieto – Noel Acciari – Vasily Ponomarev
Marcus Pettersson – Erik Karlson
Matt Grzelcyk – Jack St. Ivany
Owen Pickering – Ryan Shea
Tristan Jarry
