Pittsburgh Penguins Grab Win and Force Game Seven
It was do or die tonight for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they made the best of it. The Pens won 5-2 and forced a game seven back at home.
The Pittsburgh Penguins needed a win tonight or their season would be over. Fully aware of just how important a win tonight would be, the team pulled together to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 in a cohesive effort.
Just a few minutes in, Jonathan Drouin hit the puck into a gaping net as Matt Murray was down and out. However, head coach Mike Sullivan challenged it on the basis of being offside, and good news – Sullivan and his video staff were right! That was the second goal of the postseason to go against Drouin because he was offside.
The Pens were ready to go after that, picking off several Tampa Bay passes and putting a barrage of shots on Andrei Vasilevskiy. Eric Fehr had a particularly close chance, as did Olli Maatta, but neither could put it in.
The Lightning came back and pressured Murray a fair bit too, but the game was evenly matched. Evgeni Malkin took the first penalty of the night near the end of the first period for slashing, and the Penguins’ strong PK would take the ice. Malkin retaliated against Ryan Callahan, which is rarely a smart thing to do but in this case, I agree with it. I am very sick of Callahan.
The Pens killed off the penalty easily. They soon got a powerplay of their own as Anton Stralman went to the box for interfering with Tom Kuhnhackl. Soon the Penguins got an even better chance as Victor Hedman got nabbed with a delay of game penalty and they got a 5-on-3.
Phil Kessel took advantage of a wide-open net and got the Penguins on the board on the first powerplay. Evgeni Malkin got the puck to Sidney Crosby who made a slick pass across the crease to Kessel, who took advantage. There was a little bit of puck luck and a little bit of skill from three of the biggest names in the league.
The Penguins couldn’t cash in on their second bit of the advantage, but they had the lead and that was all that mattered.
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The second period saw the Penguins surge ahead even more. Given how strong they’ve been in the middle stanza throughout this season, this was probably to be expected. First, Kris Letang scored and widened the gap to two. Then just as the period wound down, Crosby scored his sixth of the playoffs to give the Pens a 3-0 lead.
Also in the second period, Ondrej Palat got a penalty for slashing Nick Bonino, but the Bolts killed it off. Despite that, the game was all Pittsburgh up to this point – strong forechecking, smart passing, and great shooting gave the Penguins a well-deserved lead.
But the Pens had given up several bigger leads throughout this series, and the Bolts weren’t going to give up without a fight. Brian Boyle was determined to drag his team to a win singlehandedly, scoring two goals in the third period and cutting the Pens lead to just one goal.
The Bolts dominated the third period after a subpar first two periods, and they outshot the Penguins by a wide margin. Understandably they wanted to close things out tonight, but the Penguins were up to the challenge.
Bryan Rust gave the Penguins a little more breathing room with just over two minutes left. He broke away up the ice and neatly tucked the puck between Vasilevskiy’s skate and the goalpost, making it look easy. Rust was one of the best players in the last game, and he carried that momentum over to tonight.
Nick Bonino put the nail in the coffin and scored an empty-net goal with a little under a minute remaining. The Penguins would nab the win and force a game seven at home.
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Murray had a great night, putting the doubters to rest. He needed a bit of a break and he got it, and now he’s come back just as strong as he needs to be. The team in front of him stepped up, helped him get the win tonight and evened things out.