Tampa Bay Lightning strikes again on Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 to force game 7 – NHL playoffs
Tampa Bay Lightning continued their offensive onslaught against Pittsburgh Penguins again on Monday night.
The Lightning thrashed the Penguins 4-2 to level the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series and force a deciding game seven at the sold out St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa Bay, Florida.
The home team struck down hard against the Penguins in their second consecutive win against them. Players that had not yet contributed during the playoffs, put numbers up on the boards and made sure that Tampa are not going to quit anytime soon. Tampa Bay’s
veteran goalie Dwayne Roloson showed some slick moves as he deflected 27 of 29 shots while the young Marc-Andre Fleury fell short on 4 of 21 attempts.
Pittsburgh outshot the Lightning 29-21 but like game five, it was the quality that counted. Since game four when the Penguins took a 3-1 lead in the series, both game five and six have been equal to the tensions in game seven. They have avoided elimination
in the past two matches and now it comes down just to one more game.
“We just played two Game 7s because that is the position we are in,” Lightning coach Guy Boucher said. “That fifth game was a do or die for us, and the sixth was a do or die.”
Pascal Dupuis gave the away team the lead near midway through the first period which gave the crowd a chill down their spine. Taking an early lead is always devastating if you are not able to answer back quickly. Luckily, Teddy Purcell did that and fired
the equalising goal and his first of the postseason with less than four minutes remaining to end the period with a 1-1 tie.
Sean Bergenheim made the tie-breaker six minutes into the second period on a smart pass from Dominic Moore. Moore was skating hard down the left side of Fleury while he spun around the net behind him and made a quick pass to Bergenheim on the opposite side
to tip it in while the goalie was distracted.
Jordan Staal turned the game around and made it a nail biter when he tied-up the match entering the final period. His equalising goal came moments after Roloson managed to fend off Maxime Talbot and Pascal Dupuis at point-blank range.
Steve Downie fired up the crowds emotions again when he gave the hosts the lead nearly a minute later and Ryan Malone secured the match within ten minutes of the final 20 minutes.
“Goalies have to be outstanding in the playoffs. ... That was a key moment. It was an uplift for the team,” Boucher said about Roloson’s quick saves in the final moments.
The Lightning are confident about winning game seven which takes place on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 but this time it will be in Pittsburgh which makes it even more of a challenge.
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