Penguins Short-Circuit Lightning in Game 3

Flash back with me, if you will, to last Friday night. At the risk of wearing out a familiar theme, I approached my good friend, Tom Blanciak, who was gazing up at one of the Pennsbury Pub and Grille’s big-screen TVs. Shortly after the Penguins dropped Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Finals matchup to Tampa Bay in thoroughly dismal fashion.

“Our boys didn’t look too good tonight,” I opined. “I’m worried. Tampa Bay might have our number.”

Tom shrugged.

“Yeah, the Pens stunk,” he replied. (I’m paraphrasing.) After a brief pause, Tom added, “We’re going to win the series. They gave us all kinds of room. We just need to exploit it.”

I must confess, I didn’t share my friend’s confidence. Especially after watching us blow a two-goal lead in Game 2 and come within an unlucky bounce of going to Tampa Bay down two-zip.

I do now.

The Penguins dominated the Lightning during last night’s 4-2 triumph in a way I hadn’t thought possible. Indeed, after enduring an early push by the home team, the black and gold possessed the puck for a huge chunk of Game 3. To the tune of a whopping 48-28 advantage in shots on goal.

Quick as they are, the Bolts couldn’t keep pace. Not through the first 39 minutes and change, when their 21-year-old goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy, did everything but stand on his head to prevent the Pens from scoring.

Certainly not in the closing seconds of the second period, when postseason marvel Phil Kessel streaked past Victor Hedman to set up Carl Hagelin with a well-placed carom off of Vasilevskiy’s pads.

“If you look at our team, the assets that we have, the speed comes out big,” All-Star defenseman Kris Letang said. “The key is just playing with that.”

The HBK Line shone as always, collecting two of the Pens’ four goals and five points overall. Indeed, the trio moved the bewildered Lightning around the Amalie Arena ice like pawns on a frozen chess board to set up Kessel’s bullet of a goal at 5:16 of the final period.

Rookie Matt Murray did his part, too. Razor-sharp, especially during the early going, the rangy goalie stopped 26 of 28 shots. After yielding a tally to speedy Tyler Johnson just 14 seconds after Kessel’s strike, he held the Lightning in check until Ondrej Palat beat him on a one-timer from the high slot with 104 ticks left on the game clock.

“I just try to do my job,” Murray said. “My job is to stop the puck, keep the puck out of the net. I always have faith that [our] team is going to put the puck in the other net because of the roster we have here.”

##########################################

I arrived at the Pennsbury Pub and Grille last night just in time to watch Sidney Crosby bury the eventual game-winner off a short feed from fellow superstar Evgeni Malkin.

When Chris Kunitz scored minutes later, I searched the crowd for Tom and shot him a knowing glance. He’d predicted the Kunitz for Ryan Whitney trade back in ’09.

And a return trip to the Finals.

Rutherford Nominee

Jim Rutherford was named a finalist for the General Manager of the Year Award, the NHL announced yesterday. The 67-year-old executive joined Washington’s Brian MacLellan and Jim Nill (Dallas) among the nominees.

If JR wins, he’ll follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Ray Shero, who won the award in 2012-13.

Former Pens GM Baz Bastien was named NHL Executive of the Year by The Hockey News back in 1978-79. Craig Patrick earned The Sporting News hockey executive award in 1990-91, ’97-98, and ’98-99.