Mishkin’s Extra Shift: Penguins 4, Lightning 2

This was a dominant victory for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Outside of the first 10 minutes of the game, the Penguins thoroughly outplayed the Lightning. The Pens played a hungry, hard game, which allowed them to be tenacious on pucks. They generated a high volume of shots and scoring chances and, in a similar script to Game Two, would have blown the game open if not for the stellar goaltending of Andrei Vasilevskiy. And they were sound defensively, holding the Lightning to just a handful of scoring chances for the entire game.

So high marks to the Penguins, who were deserving of this victory. But, as was the case in Game Two, the Lightning helped fuel Pittsburgh’s attack with a number of turnovers. Some of those turnovers were caused by Pittsburgh’s forechecking. But most of them were simply unforced. Poor puck decisions and/or poor execution on passes plagued the Lightning for the second game in a row. And the Lightning’s shaky puck management, from the Pittsburgh perspective, was the gift that kept on giving. Not only did it allow the Penguins to stay on the attack, it prevented the Lightning from going on offense.

The ice began to tilt towards the Lightning’s defensive zone in the second half of the first period and it continued into the second, a frame in which the Lightning were outshot, 21-6. Still, thanks to Vasilevskiy, the Lightning were 10 seconds away …

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