Mishkin’s Extra Shift: Lightning 4, Penguins 3 – OT

There were a number of things that happened to the Lightning in this game that would normally spell defeat. They surrendered tie-breaking killer goals in the final second of the first period and the final minute of the second. They allowed the game’s first goal and fell behind by scores of 2-0 and 3-2. And they had to rally against a Pittsburgh team that was committed to playing good, hard defense in front of Marc-Andre Fleury. The Pens blocked 22 shots in the game. But as they have shown us throughout the playoffs, the Lightning are a resilient bunch. Two second period goals on successive shots erased the first deficit. Nikita Kucherov tied the score at three with 3:16 remaining in the third. And in the opening minute of overtime, Jason Garrison put his shot off Tyler Johnson’s back into the net.

The Lightning started Game Five very well. Pittsburgh’s forecheck, which has given the Lightning problems during the series (and would do so again at different points in the second and third periods), was fairly quiet in the first. The Lightning enjoyed most of the puck possession and generated some excellent early scoring chances. But the Penguins did a terrific job of getting into the way of Lightning shot attempts. Despite the fact that the Bolts attempted 21 shots in the first, only four were on net. The Penguins blocked 12 and five others missed the net. Two of those shots on goal were Grade-A chances – a Ryan Callahan partial breakaway and an in-alone look for Jonathan Drouin – but Fleury denied both of those opportunities.

The Lightning didn’t make many mistakes with the puck in the first, but they committed a costly error in the closing seconds. Similar to the late stages of the second period in Game Three, the Lightning had the puck in the offensive zone, but attempted to drop it to the point. The Pens stole it and countered. Brian Dumoulin buried the rebound of a Bryan Rust shot with less than a second remaining.

Not surprisingly, the goal buoyed the Penguins, who began the second period by applying heavy pressure in the Lightning end. In those early minutes, the Lightning repeatedly turned pucks over and the Pens continued to build momentum. That formula has worked well for the Penguins during the series and has allowed them to control play for long stretches. They posted the first six shots of the period (and first eight shot attempts). At 1:30 of the frame, Patric Hornqvist …

continue reading in source lightning.nhl.com