Penguins end Lightning winning streak at five

TAMPA-- Evgeni Malkin had a goal and two assists for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Danton Heinen each had a goal and an assist for the Penguins (34-14-8), who have won three straight. Tristan Jarry made 20 saves.
"It was one of our more complete efforts all year long," Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. "I thought we had contributions from everybody on both sides of the net. For me what was probably the most encouraging part was our third period, I thought we continued to play the game on our toes. We created a lot of offense through our defense."
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored for the Lightning (35-12-6), whose five-game winning streak ended. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves.
"This one is on us as a staff and on the players as well, it's unacceptable to come out like we did," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "But Pittsburgh was exceptional and give them credit. They came into a game I'm sure they had circled on the calendar, and they imposed their will on us and we had no answer."
Heinen gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 3:46 of the first period when he scored on a loose puck in front of the net. Crosby extended the lead to 2-0 at 6:27 with a power-play goal, a wrist shot from the left circle.
"We knew we hadn't been great off the start and that's something that we focused on," Penguins forward Bryan Rust said, "If we play the way we can, the way we want to and the way that we know that we are capable of, I think we can do some pretty good things."

Bellemare made it 2-1 at 6:20 of the second period when he slipped the puck past Jarry using the forehand.
"It's hard to play from behind in the league, especially against a good team like Pittsburgh," Lightning forward Pat Maroon said. "They come with a lot of pace. They kind of play like us -- shot mentality, scramble game, [defensemen] down, back to the net, second and third opportunities. They gave it to us tonight."
Brock McGinn made it 3-1 at 17:08 with a breakaway goal off a pass from Evan Rodrigues.
"We just wanted to come out and play a complete game," McGinn said. "I think we really focused on our D-zone and creating offense off that. We did a good job at limiting them there tonight."
Malkin pushed the lead to 4-1 at 5:14 of the third period with a breakaway goal, beating Vasilevskiy with a forehand. Guentzel made it 5-1 with an empty-net goal at 14:00.
Malkin has scored 11 points (five goals, six assists) during a seven-game point streak.
"I thought that was 'Geno's' best game of the year to this point," Sullivan said. "I've felt like he's getting better and better with each game. Tonight I thought he was in beast mode."

Cooper was ejected at 19:06 of the second period for a game misconduct.
"I'm not sitting here and saying Pittsburgh is a better team than us," Cooper said. "They're a really good team and we're a really good team. They were exponentially better than us tonight. So for one night, give them credit."
NOTES: Crosby has scored six points (three goals, three assists) during a five-game point streak. He scored his 75th game-winning goal, tying Malkin for second in Penguins history behind Jaromir Jagr (78). … Lightning forward Steven Stamkos did not have a shot on goal and had his five-game goal streak end. … Pittsburgh is 19-6-3 on the road, leading the NHL with 41 road points. … Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman was minus-3 with four turnovers. … McGinn scored for the first time in 14 games; his last goal was Jan. 25 against the Arizona Coyotes.