Lightning Vs. Penguins, Game 1: Pittsburgh Scores Two In 18 Seconds, Takes Series Lead 3-0 Win

After 20 minutes of play in Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Pittsburgh Penguins probably went back into the locker room at CONSOL Energy Center with a good deal of anger brewing under their helmets.

They came out after the break and uncorked all of that emotion. 40 minutes, 30 shots and three goals later, the Penguins left the building with a shutout victory over the Bolts and 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

After a lengthy stretch of action, stretching across the second intermission, where the Penguins completely controlled possession and offensive zone time, Alexei Kovalev finally beat Tampa goaltender Dwayne Roloson. Roloson had been brilliant until that point, holding the Pens off the board with a few fantastic stretches of multiple saves. But once Pittsburgh cracked the armor once, that was all they would need.

Arron Asham scored just 18 seconds later and the Lightning completely imploded, only applying minimal pressure on Marc-Andre Fleury and the Pens end throughout the remainder of the game. Chris Kunitz added an empty netter in the final minute to seal the victory, as Pittsburgh successfully held off the potent Lightning attack for the first 60 minutes of the series.

For more on this one, be sure to check in with SB Nation’s Penguins blog, Pensburgh, as well as our Lightning blog, Raw Charge. We also have full coverage of this series here at SBNation.com.