After clinching a spot in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs Friday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-4 loss Saturday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena.
With Pittsburgh scratching and clawing in hopes of earning a spot in the postseason, Sidney Crosby opened the scoring 4:20 into the opening frame to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead with his 40th goal of the campaign.
Pittsburgh outshot the Bolts 14-6 in the first period and went to the locker room up by one before Evgeni Malkin pushed the lead to 2-0 at the 6:06 mark of the middle frame.
Steven Stamkos got Tampa Bay back within one 6:09 later when he scored his 35th goal of the season with a blast from the left circle on the power play.
Taking a pass from Brayden Point just inside the Penguins blue line, Nikita Kucherov made a move around Lars Eller and sent a backhand pass right onto the tape of Victor Hedman at the point. Hedman quickly moved the puck to Stamkos, who ripped a slap shot past Alex Nedeljkovic to make it a 2-1 game.
But just as it looked like the Lightning were grabbing the momentum, Pittsburgh responded with back-to-back goals from Kris Letang and Malkin just 2:18 apart to take a 4-1 lead to the second intermission.
Despite already earning a spot in the postseason and trailing by three entering the third period, Tampa Bay showed no sign of quitting and stormed back to tie the game at 4-4 within a span of 10:20.
Nick Paul made it a two-goal game only 25 seconds into the final frame when Mitchell Chaffee sent a pass through the neutral zone to Mikey Eyssimont, who threw the puck to open ice in the offensive zone. Winning a race to the loose puck, Paul turned and fired a quick slap shot on goal that went off the far post and into the back of the net for his career-high 23rd goal of the campaign.
Nearly seven minutes later, Hedman crossed over the Penguins blue line and sent a pass to Kucherov, who slammed on the breaks and found a trailing Anthony Duclair entering the Pittsburgh zone. Taking the pass from Kucherov, Duclair skated downhill right into the slot and beat Nedeljkovic with an impressive release to make it 4-3 with his 22nd goal of the season.
Following a tripping penalty on Marcus Pettersson at the 9:39 mark of the third, Tampa Bay went to the power play and got another goal from Stamkos to even the score at four apiece with 9:15 remaining in regulation.
Similar to his first goal of the afternoon, Stamkos took a pass from Hedman at the left circle and blasted a one-timer past Nedeljkovic for his 36th goal of the year with Kucherov recording his third assist of the game with the secondary helper.
But despite the heroic comeback by the Bolts, the hungry Penguins were able to net the game-winning goal off the stick of Michael Bunting with 5:28 left in the third.
Andrei Vasilevskiy finished the afternoon with 23 saves on 28 shots against. Haydn Fleury left the game with an injury and was unable to return.
Bolts by the Numbers
- Nikita Kucherov posted a three-point effort for the third-straight game to extend his point streak to six games (2-11—13) with three assists. Kucherov has now logged 38 multi-point games this season, matching his 38 multi-point efforts in 2018-19 to tie the Lightning franchise record for most multi-point games in a single season. Kucherov has now recorded 22 three-point games this season, tying Connor McDavid (2022-23) for the most three-point efforts in a single season among all active NHL players. Jaromir Jagr (25 in 1995-96) and Mario Lemieux (29 in 1995-96) are the last players to post more than 22 three-point efforts in a single season. Kucherov continues to lead the NHL with 136 points (43-93—136), a Tampa Bay franchise record for points in a single season.
- With two power-play goals, Steven Stamkos extended his goal streak to five games (7-1—8), the longest goal streak among all Lightning skaters this season. Stamkos is up to 18 power-play goals this season, the third-most among all NHL skaters.
- Victor Hedman became the fourth active NHL defenseman to record multiple 60-assist seasons after logging three helpers. Hedman has posted five three-assist efforts this season and eight games with three or more points.
- Anthony Duclair picked up his sixth goal in 13 career games as a Bolt (6-5—11). Duclair (144-155—299, 559 GP) is one point shy of recording 300 career points.
- Nick Paul scored a goal for the third-straight game (4-0—4) and continued his career season by pushing his season point total to 43 (23-20—43).
Bolts Quotes
- Victor Hedman: “You're not going to get away with this in the playoffs. You've got to be ready to go from the start. Today was one of those games where we kind of exhaled a little bit, but it's human nature probably. I'm so proud of what we've accomplished and the way we've been playing the last few months and the streaks we've gone on to make sure that we climbed ourselves into the playoffs and clinched another playoff berth. I'm super proud of every single guy in this room for their sacrifice and their dedication to get us back into the playoffs.”
- Steven Stamkos: “It's just disappointing because if we play like that all game then we maybe have a different result. A case of too little, too late. You clinch a spot last night and these guys are obviously very hungry to get into the playoffs. I think that played a part in it at the beginning of the game. We needed to wake up and we did and tied the game. Tough to see them get one right back, but certainly a better effort in the third and some things to take away from that that we can definitely feel good about.”
- Jon Cooper: “The league's too tight to not be on the same emotional wavelength and we weren't. But, in saying that, there was a lot of pride in the room and there was no sense in coming in here and getting embarrassed. I loved our pushback. That game was definitely a no-refunds game for the fans because it was pretty darn exciting. Disappointed with the outcome of the game, naturally, but there was a lot of good things to take away, especially in that third period. Pretty gutty effort to come back the way they did. It's tough. We just came up short.”
- Stamkos on the playoff berth: “It's something to be proud of. This group, we set a goal for ourselves before training camp starts and that's to make the playoffs. You look at some of the times throughout the year, there was probably a lot of people that were doubting this group's capability of doing that. I give high praise for our guys in here that dug deep and played really good hockey here down the stretch and put ourselves in a position to compete for the Stanley Cup. It might be something that's taken for granted around here with the success that we've had, but it's something to be proud of and I am proud of the group. We've still got to finish strong here these last five games though and that's something that we'll look forward to doing.”
Krenner’s Three Stars
1. Evgeni Malkin
2. Steven Stamkos
3. Victor Hedman
Lightning Look Ahead
- Tuesday, April 9 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena
- Thursday, April 11 vs. Ottawa Senators, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena
- Saturday, April 13 at Washington Capitals, 5:30 p.m. ET, Capital One Arena
