Tampa Bay Lightning crushed Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1: NHL Recap
Eric Brewer and Vincent Lecavalier both lit the lamp in the first period, as Tampa Bay Lightning held on for a 5-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal
series, at the Consol Energy Centre on Friday night.
Brewer also assisted twice while Martin St Louis and Nate Thompson both hit the net for the Lightning, which rebounded from Wednesday's 3-0 loss and dropped straight contests only nine
times in the regular season, with the longest skid 0-2-2 last month.
Mattias Ohlund also added a goal and Simon Gagne picked up three assists to earn the victory. Dwayne Roloson stopped 35 shots for his first postseason win in five years.
Craig Adams was the lone scorer for the fourth-seeded Pittsburgh, which is 0 for 13 in the series and has converted just six of its previous 79 power-play chances over the last 25 play-offs.
Marc-Andre Fleury was under siege all night, turning away only 16 shots in the loss.
The Lightning dominated the play throughout the opening period by scoring three straight goals.
The first goal came just two minutes into the game on Lightning’s first shot. The play was set up by Gagne, who rushed on 4-on4 and swept a nice cross-ice pass to Brewer, who then skated
on a 2-on-1 with Nate Thompson, brought the puck down the right wing and ripped a high shot that beat Fleury on the short side.
Lecavalier gave the Lightning a two-goal edge, 2-0, on a power play about five minutes later. It happened so when Brewer set up the play in the offensive zone by hitting the puck out of
the air at the left point. Tampa Bay then worked it down to Gagne in the left corner, where he passed it in front to Lecavalier, who beat defender Kris Letang and jammed the puck home.
Thompson pushed the lead to 3-0 with about three minutes left in the first period, as he took advantage of several Pittsburgh’s breakdowns. The goal was set up by Steve Downie, who moved
to the right wing on a 2-on-1 and unleashed a hard low shot that Fleury stopped with his right pad, but he let go a rebound that Thompson buried home while drifting to the front.
The Penguins took advantage of a Roloson’s mistake to make it two-goal game, 3-1, about nine minutes into the middle session. The goal came when a dump-in near the crease caused trouble
for the goalie, as he was forced to leave it and backpedal to his crease. Pittsburgh’s forward Arron Asham then swept the puck on goal, but it was saved. Adams followed the rebound at stuffed it into the net.
Even though Pittsburgh took command of the play for most of the second period, but it found itself down three, 4-1, again heading into the final session, as St. Louis rifled a bad-angle
shot from the corner past Fleury with 14 seconds remaining.
Ohlund finally sealed the win at 5-1 with a short-handed empty-netter with just over two minutes left in the game.
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