Displaying remarkable resilience, the Tampa Bay Lightning overcame a two-goal deficit and a pair of late-period tallies to defeat the Penguins, 4-3, in overtime last night at Consol Energy Center.
In the process, the Lightning ended the Pens’ 46-0 streak when leading after two periods and took a 3-games-to-2 lead in their Eastern Conference Finals series.
The Bolts also spoiled the home-ice return of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, making his first start of the playoffs and only his second game appearance since March 31.
“It’s been a while since I played,” Fleury said. “I was really looking forward to it. I’m just pretty disappointed that it ended the way it did.”
It sure was tough to watch the Penguins grab leads on two separate occasions—on last-minute goals to boot—only to hand them back. It continues a disturbing trend of frittering away hard-earned leads that began in the Washington series.
While Fleury hardly resembled Georges Vezina between the pipes, it’s tough to blame No. 29 on three of Tampa Bay’s goals. Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov struck within 1:10 in the second period on perfectly placed shots. Kucherov, in particular, had a clear shooting lane thanks to poor defensive-zone coverage. The overtime winner bounced in off Tyler Johnson’s back.
Fleury had no chance.
The third goal? The Kucherov wraparound with just over three minutes left in regulation to send the game into OT? A crusher. And stoppable. One Fleury, no doubt, would love to have back.
So would his teammates.
It wasn’t all “Flower’s” fault.
Kris Letang (minus-4) picked a bad time to play his worst game of the postseason. With the exception of a slick assist by Evgeni Malkin on the Pens’ third goal, the big guns were notably absent from the score sheet. Although Olli Maatta enjoyed his finest game in recent memory, the Pens clearly missed the speed and all-around play of Trevor Daley. Indeed, with Daley sidelined (broken ankle), the defense seemed in disarray for much of the evening.
Still, the Pens had their moments. Brian Dumoulin’s miracle goal in the final second of the first period stunned the Lightning and gave the black and gold an early lead they, perhaps, didn’t deserve. Patric Hornqvist followed up with a typically dirty goal from the doorstep at 1:30 of the second period. After Tampa Bay rallied to even the score, Chris Kunitz banged home an adrenalin-pumper from the slot in the final minute of the second frame to make it 3-2 Pens.
There were plenty of ifs, too. If Phil Kessel had one-timed a golden opportunity on the power play instead of taking a moment to tee up a wrister… If Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (31 saves) hadn’t robbed Kunitz from point-blank range, just before Kucherov’s equalizer… If Dumoulin hadn’t been boxed out on the play…
“We’re all disappointed we didn’t get the result tonight,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “But we can’t change it. What we’ve got to do is we’ve got to gather ourselves, we’ve got to get back at it and try to win a game.”
Stanley Cup champions find a way.
Let’s hope our Penguins do, too.
Sheary Sits
Sullivan sat sparkplug winger Conor Sheary, opting to dress Beau Bennett instead. Bennett, out since April 5 due to a recurring shoulder injury, joined Sidney Crosby and Hornqvist on the top line. The Gardena, California native skated 20 shifts and had two shots on goal. He was a minus-2.
Maatta replaced Daley on defense. The 21-year-old Finn was a plus-2, with an assist and four hits in 17:21 of ice time.
Hi Rick,
Nice article. I agree that Game 6 was less than what our Pens and Penguin Nation wanted. MAF definitely wanted the Kucherov wraparound back and I’m sure he wanted back the bad angle goal by Killorn. Daley was certainly a huge blow, but they, like the Lightning, have dealt with adversity all year long but how they responded is what’s propelled them to here now. I believe they will overcome this and force Game 7 and exorcise that postseason demon. To do that, I agree they need all hands on deck, stop the stupid penalties (play with that controlled emotion), and of course our leaders NEED to STEP IT UP. Jim nailed it that Geno needs to been more selfish and start blasting.
Let’s Go Pens!
Hi Rick,
Not the result I expected either last night. That was a hard one to take.
Not that I am superstitious like Coach,but the HNIC crew commented last night that NHL stats show that the team that wins game 5, has a 78 % chance of winning the series, based on historical records. We have a 22% chance of winning, if you go by the numbers. Can it be done ? Yes it can but it is not easy historically. We need to be perfect ! Not good…Perfect ! By that I mean we do not have to win 2 games…we need to win 6 periods of hockey. Shift by shift.
I know you and I disagree on MAF, and I truly respect your knowledge and opinions, but I believe we need to start Murray. Plus somebody needs to wind up Geno, and tell him to be selfish and charge the net and shoot the puck. Crosby can not deliver the goals by himself. He needs others to be effective. Geno with his size,speed and skill can handle the large Tampa d men and can score himself ! He needs a four point night with a couple of goals if we are going to be in that 22 %. Plus the HBK line needs to keep doing what they have done all playoffs. Driving the opposition crazy.
Please stay out of the penalty box !
Lets go Pen’s.
Good article my friend !
Hey Jim,
Sorry for being so out-of-pocket on the comments.
Speaking of, you did an outstanding job of addressing what was going on in point-by-point fashion under my previous post.
Just to clarify my stance on Fleury/Murray, I felt like the kid was wearing down a bit. And I was hoping against hope that Fleury would be ready to make a statement with his play. He did…just not the right one.
I’m with you 100 percent. I go back to Murray in Game 6. Hopefully, he’ll be better rested and ready to go. His coolness under fire makes him the better choice right now.
Wish I felt better about our chances. Losing Daley was a real blow.
Hey Jim,
You make a really great point about Geno. He has the skill set to take control of a game by himself and he needs to do it. Between his stick handling skills and Letangs elusive skating ability, the two of them need to embarrass the Bolts a couple of times to cast doubt on their tight checking. That was one of the things that made Mario so great. If you try to check him close he dangled the puck out and then pulled it around you making you look silly and if you sat back a little to prevent him from walking around you he used the open ice and time to find an open winger.
If Malkin and Letang burn a couple of TB defenders the ice opens up a lot. Times running short so they don’t have any to waste. They will have to go full tilt from the opening drop to get the Bolts doubting early enough to take advantage of it.
One last quick question (adding to reasons why Murray should start), maybe you or Rick may know the answer, but has any team won the Cup with 3 different goalies getting wins and 2 of those goalies getting at least 6 wins?
Hey Coach,
Rick will probably know the answer to your question better than I, but I think maybe the Islanders during their 4 Cup reign with Billy Smith, Chico Recsh and their AHL goalie,( Healy ??) that got called up when Smith got injured ?? I am not sure,that was long time a go.
Rick will know or one of the other contributors. Good question !
I just heard Murray is starting tonight…. That is a good start….
Give Coach Sullivan a lot of credit. You can bet there was extreme pressure from above to let MAF play ! Hopefully,win or lose tonight this is the start of a new Management change where by the best players play and it does not matter the size of your pay cheque or what you did in the past.
Prediction for tonight…..Pens 5 … Bolts 2…
Geno gets 2, Kessel gets 1, Cullen gets 1 and Letang gets 1.
Every time I do this I get it wrong… so I am do to get one right.
Cheers !