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 So it's no surprise the Tampa Bay offense stayed hot Friday with a
6-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Amalie Arena.
Winger Ondrej Palat and defenseman Anton Stralman scored two goals
apiece as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins
6-3 at Amalie Arena on Friday.
Center Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning (29-18-4), who won
10 of their past 11 games.
"I think Pittsburgh stretched the game out a little bit," Johnson
said. "They try and go for those longer passes and more chips
whereas Detroit is a little more closer support, kind of slowing the
game down a little bit. I think that's what is great about our team,
we can play any kind of style. You know we have the skill and the
guys able to do that, and our system works for it."
Right winger Patric Hornqvist and centers Sidney Crosby and Matt
Cullen scored for the Penguins (25-18-7), who had a four-game win
streak snapped.
The Penguins started the scoring at 4:53 in the first period with a
goal from Hornqvist. The Lightning tied the game at 1-1 at 11:50 in
the first period on a goal from Stralman.
The Lightning took a 2-1 lead at 18:34 in the first period when
Killorn scored his ninth goal of the season on a redirection of a
slap shot by right winger Nikita Kucherov from the point.
"I think that's what we stress every year to be a good defensive
team," Killorn said." It's one of those things that we kind of just
think the offense is going to come, and it has the past two years. I
think this year was a little bit different. We weren't scoring at
the beginning, but we were there defensively. We had to find ways to
score, and it's nice to kind of find it at this point of the
season."
Palat increased the lead to 3-1 at 6:04 in the second period when he
scored a short-handed goal on a breakaway that beat Penguins goalie
Marc-Andre Fleury in the five-hole. On the sequence, Lightning
center Steven Stamkos outworked Penguins left winger Chris Kunitz at
the blue line to free the puck for Palat.
Crosby scored his 21st goal of the season at 8:04 in the second
period to make it 3-2 when he beat Lightning goalie Ben Bishop with
a wrist shot high to the glove side. This time, Kunitz fought to get
the puck off the boards and sent a pass to Crosby in the slot where
he did the rest.
"We found ourselves playing catch up for much of the game," Crosby
said. "We battled hard. At times we were able to climb back in the
game but ultimately it caught up to us."
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Johnson made it 4-2 when he scored a power-play goal at 9:15 in the
second period on a one-timer from the right circle with Kucherov
getting the assist. Fleury was pulled after the goal for backup Jeff
Zatkoff.
After Cullen's goal pulled the Penguins to 4-3 55 seconds into the
third period, Palat scored his second goal of the game off an assist
from Stamkos with 4:05 remaining to give the Lightning a 5-3 lead.
"We played the right way for the most part but we didn't get
rewarded for it and that's hockey," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan
said. "The fact that we were pressing down the stretch, in my mind,
that is probably the difference in the game."
Stralman added an empty-net goal with 2:04 left. Bishop had 27
saves.
"Obviously these two games after this break were important to us,"
Bishop said. "One team that we were tied with and one that is right
behind us, so to be able to get these wins on home ice is important.
Hopefully we can just keep this rolling while we go to Canada and
play in two tough buildings. Hopefully we can just keep this
snowball going."
NOTES: Penguins C Oskar Sundqvist made his NHL debut Friday after
being called up from AHL Wilkes-Barre to replace injured C Eric
Fehr, who is out for at least a month with a lower-body injury.
Penguins coach Matt Sullivan said Sundqvist is "a big body that can
skate well and his game should translate well to the NHL." ...
Lightning C Cedric Paquette played Friday after leaving practice
Thursday when he injured his right foot in a shot-blocking drill.
... With Penguins C Evgeni Malkin out for at least the weekend trip
to Florida with a lower-body injury, C Matt Cullen moved to the
second line between LW Carl Hagelin and RW Phil Kessel.
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