Lightning patch past mistakes and hold off Penguins rally in 4-3 victory
The Eastern Conference Final is tied 2-2 after Tampa Bay’s strong win.
The Penguins made it a game late with three straight goals in the third, but the Lightning held on for the win. The series now heads back to Pittsburgh on Sunday for Game 5 with an 8 p.m. puck drop.
A quick start saw the Lightning up 1-0 on the Penguins just 27 seconds into the game. Out of the gate, Tampa Bay’s forecheck got the puck in deep in the Pittsburgh zone and Victor Hedman’s shot from the point deflected off of Ryan Callahan’s stick to give the Lightning the lead.
Overall it was a much stronger first period for Tampa Bay, who outshot the Penguins 18-12 in the opening 20. The Lightning increased their lead to two on Andrej Sustr’s first of the playoffs. A counter rush for the Lightning benefited from some crisp passing and movement, which got the puck to Sustr all alone in the slot for the easy tap in on Matt Murray’s glove side with 5:32 to go in the period.
The Penguins started to unravel in the second, as they gave the Lightning a late four-minute power play after Kris Letang roughed it up after a whistle. Jonathan Drouin scored on the ensuing man advantage, with the Penguins defense unable to get over to the forward hanging out on Murray's stick side for the easy tap in past the goaltender's stretched leg.
Three minutes after Drouin's goal, Tyler Johnson got his sixth of the postseason to make it 4-0 Lightning. Nikita Kucherov got a lucky bounce off the forward in front that went up and over the head of Murray to end another two-goal period for the Lightning.
Marc-Andre Fleury made an appearance in goal for the Penguins to start the third. The goaltender had not seen action since the end of March, and the change helped spark a Pittsburgh goal from Phil Kessel. The snipe broke Andrei Vasilevskiy's shutout at 1:18 of the period.
Evgeni Malkin made it 4-2 with less than nine minutes remaining in the game. The forward entered the Lightning zone uncontested and got off a shot in close that beat Vasilevskiy between the arms. Less than two minutes later, Chris Kunitz got it to a one-goal game with a power play tally.
However, that would be all the Penguins would get as they ran out of race track in the 4-3 loss.
