PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Trailing 2-1 in the second, Evgeni Malkin got out of the penalty box at the moment Josh Archibald got control of the puck. Malkin would gather the pass at the blue line, turn and score on the breakaway to tie it and the Pens would score FIVE more goals in the period in trouncing the Lightning 7-3.
“Tonight we got some chances, and we finished them,” said Pens head coach Mike Sullivan. “It’s nice that our guys got rewarded tonight for it for sure. From a process standpoint, if we can continue to play that way and get those types of looks, eventually the puck will go in for us.”
“I think it’s big, you get offense going like that it gives you a lot of confidence,” said forward Drew O’Connor. “At times it hasn’t been there, a big offensive burst like that is huge for the confidence, I think.”
Tampa Bay back-up goalie Brian Elliott had actually made a few good saves including one on Bryan Rust stopping a short-handed opportunity 4:50 into the second period, before the Malkin goal. Elliott made another save on Rust, before he couldn’t stop the following:
· Sidney Crosby on the power play at 15:28 after Rickard Rakell intercepted an Elliott pass and Jake Guentzel with the backhanded feed
· 52 seconds later, Teddy Blueger, scored his first goal since December 6 in the paint as Brock McGinn was crushed in front, the assists to Marcus Pettersson and Jeff Petry.
· Jeff Carter takes a feed from Kris Letang and beats Elliott high to make it 5-2 at 17:50-his second since January 8.
· Jason Zucker with a pretty backhand in front of the net 47 seconds later off the Malkin feed and it’s 6-2
· Eight seconds left in the second, Crosby wins the faceoff and kicks it back to Brian Dumoulin who slaps it by Elliott for his first of the season from near the blue line, 7-2
· Drew O’Connor scored the first goal of the game off assists from Pettersson and Petry, 3:20 into the first period.
“Good team effort, everyone contributed, so that feels good,” Blueger said. “Overall, I think our game has been going pretty well, been getting chances. It’s just a matter of capitalizing.”
“It was good to stay on them,” Dumoulin said. “I thought after we scored those goals we had some great shifts. Those shifts after goals have been huge and momentum builders. I thought we did a good job capitalizing on those and creating some momentum for ourselves.”
“Sometimes it’s funny that it works like that,“ O’Connor said. “I think we just kind of responded in a good way after a tough week. (Saturday) was a really good game for us and we continued that.”
Notes
· The seven goals match a season-high, beating Florida 7-6 on January 24
· 13 Pens had a point, six had two points
Playoff race
A number of teams involved in the Wild Card race played on Sunday. Here are the updated standings.
Islanders-63 games-69 points
Pens-59 games-67 points
Buffalo-58 games-66 points
Detroit-58 games-64 points
Florida-61 games-64 points
Washington-62 games-64 points
Ottawa-58 games-60 points
Up Next
Pens are on the road for the rest of the week starting Tuesday night at 8p in Nashville.