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.
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