Tampa Bay Lightning plays host to Pittsburgh Penguins in the fourth and final meeting between the two
Tampa Bay Lightning will be hosting Pittsburgh Penguins at the St. Pete Times Forum in one of Thursday’s games. This will be the fourth and final meeting between the two teams during the course of the season.
Out of the three games that have taken place so far during the course of the season, Lightning won the first game by 5-3 while Penguins won the last two games.
The last two games have seen Penguins winning 5-1 and the most recent game, easily with a thrashing score of 8-1.
Penguins came across some more relief as it heard the news from Penguins’ General Manager that the long time injured may return for the first game of the playoffs.
He added that this still has a low probability but still keeping him out of the equation, Penguins has done pretty well during the season.
Though the Penguins’ Managers wanted him to return to boost up the team and give them the extra edge but he said that he would not take any chances. If there would be even a little percentage of not being fully fit then he would not play till the start of
the next season.
Penguins has been without the services of another top player, Evgeni Malkin, but it managed to stay in contention for the Conference and Division titles, both. However, its last game hurt its chances in the running for both.
It was up against Philadelphia Flyers in its last game this past Tuesday and had a chance to close down the gap.
Unfortunately, it was Flyers’ night as it dominated the game and won it by 5-2 in the end.
The game will give Penguins a chance to extend its lead over Lightning that is one spot below them at fifth.
"I don't think that we play hockey to win the division. We play hockey to win the playoffs", forward Maxime Talbot said. "I never celebrated winning the season".
Penguins has played 77 games during the season so far of which it has won 45 games in regulation time and eight games in overtime to score a total of 98 points.
Lightning has played 76 games during the season out of which it has won 41 games in regulation time and11 games in overtime, scoring 93 points.
Lightning will be facing Penguins, looking to improve on its performance in the series and avenge its earlier defeats.
In its last game against Senators, Lightning came up with a strong performance that saw it winning by 5-2.
"We're back to our mentality and I think we're back to what we've done all year", Moore said. "That's deserving victories and deserving results".
A win for Penguins is important if it wants to avoid Lightning in the first round of the playoffs.
Tags: