It took a little longer than most of the games in this stretch, but the Tampa Bay Lightning picked up their franchise-best 11th win in a row as they took down the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1, in a shootout. It was a goaltending battle as Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up his 350th career win by stopping 26-of-27 shots while Arturs Silovs matched him shot-for-shot in regulation with 30 saves.
It was a scoreless first period, something that the Lightning haven’t seen much of recently, but there was still some action. The Penguins were beneficiaries of two power plays, both compliments of Nikita Kucherov, and they generated a couple of chances, but Andrei Vasilevskiy and the penalty-killers were up to the task.
For the 5v5 portion of the period, the Lightning had the territorial edge, launching 19 shot attempts at Arturs Silovs, who seemingly used his blocker to knock aside all 8 shots that found their way on net. Pittsburgh kept them away from the dangerous areas for most of the period, hence the lack of scoring from the league’s best road team. Nick Paul had a pretty solid look compliments of his new linemates as he unloaded a wrister from the slot that Silovs gloved away.
The second period featured a few more power plays, with the Lightning getting a couple of chances with the extra skater. Despite some solid zone time they weren’t able to put one in the net as their best chance bounced off the iron after Darren Raddysh uncorked one of his one-timers. Oliver Bjorkstrand whistled one just wide from the slot that had Silovs beat.
It was the effort of the Lightning’s back-checkers that helped keep the Penguins off of the scoreboard as well as a heads-up play by Erik Cernak. After the big defenseman lost his stick tripping up a Pittsburgh player, he hustled back to break up a cross-ice feed by sliding along the ice and kicking the puck away.
Neither team was allowing much in front of the net as the Lightning mustered just three high-danger chances in the period, but they also only allowed two by the Penguins. Rebound chances were at a minimum as well.
While there had been some penalties in the game, there wasn’t really a lot of choppiness to the game. That changed in the third when Connor Clifton had a chance to run Brandon Hagel between the numbers, and he didn’t avoid it – as he drilled the oft-injured forward into the boards.
Anthony Cirelli did what he usually does when Hagel is involved in this type of situation and immediately dropped the gloves. Cirelli picked up the extra penalty for instigating and a misconduct. The Lightning still emerged with a power play, but weren’t able to convert as the Pittsburgh penalty-killers did their job.
Just as it seemed the possibility of a 0-0 game was starting to blossom, the Lightning scored on a bit of flukey goal. The Lightning had a rare odd-skater rush and Yanni Gourde got a shot off that Silovs stopped. It appeared he had it covered it up, but the puck fell in front of him where J.J. Moser was the only player that realized the whistle hadn’t blown. He poked the loose puck home and the Lightning had the lead.
J.J. Moser [5] (Yanni Gourde, Zemgus Girgensons) 1-0 Lightning
Pittsburgh pulled their goaltender with several minutes to go and it paid off as Evgeni Malkin, it’s always Malkin, snuck a shot past his glove and inside the post to tie the game. A fun, but unproductive overtime period followed as Vasilevskiy made several stops in the five minute bonus period. Silovs wasn’t as busy, but he did get the better of Kucherov in a one-on-one battle.
The Lightning won the skills competition as Gage Goncalves and Nikita Kucherov, aka GOAT 86, converted their attempts.
Feel free to celebrate Kucherov’s goal with a new shirt.
