Lightning vs. Penguins odds, NHL playoffs 2016: Pittsburgh a road favorite in Game 4 of series

Pittsburgh is a -145 road betting favorite in Friday’s Game 4 at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Tampa Bay will try to knot the series up at two games apiece as a +125 home underdog.

For the third straight game in this series, the Penguins had the Lightning on their heels for most of the night. The Penguins outshot the Lightning 48-28 in Wednesday night’s 4-2 win in Game 3, bringing the series total in shots to a staggering 124 for Pittsburgh to Tampa Bay’s 69.

Pittsburgh has stayed out of the penalty box with only two penalties taken over the last two games, and the Penguins have looked like the superior team for large stretches of play.

The win in Game 3 brought Pittsburgh’s record to 12-3 in its last 15 road games including a 4-2 record in the postseason per the OddsShark NHL Database.

The Lightning’s bend-don’t-break system worked to perfection in Game 1, when the team took a 1-0 lead late in the first period and was able to hold on the rest of the way despite being outshot 35 to 20. Unfortunately for the Lightning, that lead in Game 1 was the only one that the team has been able to get all series.

Game 3 was a scoreless tie for the first 39 minutes of the game, but Pittsburgh’s relentless attack eventually broke the game open starting with a goal with 10 seconds left in the second period. Tampa Bay was 4-0 in its previous four games against Pittsburgh before losing the last two.

Friday’s total is set at five goals at the sportsbooks. The OVER is 15-2-1 in the last 18 games between these two teams.

En route to the Stanley Cup Final last season, the Lightning had to overcome a 2-1 series deficit against the Detroit Red Wings. The Lightning did so by first winning in Game 4, something they will need to find a way to do at home on Friday as a 3-to-1 series deficit to this red-hot Penguins team would almost certainly be too difficult to overcome.