Mishkin’s Extra Shift: Penguins 3, Lightning 2 – OT

First things first. Let’s mention two clear facts about tonight’s game. The Pittsburgh Penguins played a spirited game and enjoyed the run of play for most of the night. They had the majority of the shots, scoring chances and puck possession. Also, the Lightning couldn’t take advantage of a splendid performance from Andrei Vasilevskiy, who finished with 38 saves.

So it’s true that the Penguins did a lot of things very well in this game and Vasilevskiy was a big reason why they were held to two goals through three periods. But those two facts aren’t the only ones worth mentioning. The Lightning, despite posting only 21 shots in the game, actually generated a high number of scoring chances themselves. But because of some Matt Murray saves, a crossbar hit and some other attempts that were either blocked or missed the net, they also were also held to two goals through the first three periods.

The Penguins scored twice in the opening 9:37 of the game. On both, they did well to apply pressure – pressure that led to the goals. But they also received some puck luck on both. After Vasilveskiy stopped Eric Fehr’s shot on a two-on-one, Ondrej Palat mishandled the rebound and put it right onto the stick of Matt Cullen, who finished his chance. The Pens made it 2-0 when Nick Bonino’s rebound shot hit off the skate of Andrej Sustr and ricocheted to Phil Kessel, who scored from the left circle.

In those opening minutes, the Penguins had other chances to score. But so did the Lightning. The difference was that the Lightning’s shots weren’t reaching Murray. The best of those came off a shot from Jonathan Drouin, but Ben Lovejoy blocked the open net chance.

The opportunities didn’t dry up for the Lightning, however. Jonathan Marchessault fed Anton …

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