After allowing two last minute goals, the Lightning pulled off a late rally of their own to win Game 5 by a score of 4-3. Tyler Johnson got the game winner in overtime as the Lightning now have a chance to advance on home ice on Tuesday.
Lightning cap 4-3 rally in overtime to put the Penguins on the brink of elimination
Tampa Bay takes the series back home with a 3-2 lead.
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Marc-Andre Fleury started his first game of the playoffs in the loss as Andrei Vasilevskiy got the win with 31 saves.
A Tampa Bay controlled first period was broken after 19:59 seconds of play. Bryan Rust outmuscled Victor Hedman on a break down the ice and the rebound popped out to Brian Dumoulin, who shot the puck in past Andrei Vasilevskiy with 0.7 seconds to go in the first for the 1-0 Penguins lead.
The Penguins picked up where they left off at the end of the first, as Patric Hornqvist put Pittsburgh up 2-0 on a tap-in in front of the net. A slow Lightning change benefitted the Penguins, who got the puck down low and a redirection from Carl Hagelin went right to the stick of Hornqvist that Vasilevskiy could not get a leg on.
Alex Killorn broke the ice for the Lightning with 6:45 to go in the second. After a huge penalty kill, Killorn roofed the puck on Fleury on the short side from the left circle that cut the Penguins lead to 2-1.
A minute and 10 seconds later, Nikita Kucherov got his first goal of the series that evened the score at 2-2. Pretty passing by the Lightning in the offensive zone saw Kucherov the open man for the tap in that went past Fleury blocker side.
Once again, a last minute goal burned the Lightning as Chris Kunitz put the Penguins up with 49 seconds remaining in the second. Vasilevskiy went down early to glove the puck, but Kunitz got his stick on it after it got kicked out in front to put it through the legs and in for the 3-2 tiebreaker.
Mere moments after a puck bounced off the crossbar and into the blue paint, the Lightning scored for real to tie the game 3-3 with 3:16 to go in the third. Kucherov got his second of the game on a wrap around that Fleury could not track and the goal sent the game to overtime.
It took 53 seconds for Johnson to score, after Jason Garrison’s shot went off the backside of the forward in front of the net and deflected past Fleury for the 4-3 game winner.
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