Lightning edge Penguins in shootout, tie franchise record with 11th straight win

PITTSBURGH -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves to help the Tampa Bay Lightning win their 11th straight game, tying the longest streak in team history with a 2-1 shootout victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday.

The streak is the longest in the NHL this season.

J.J. Moser scored for the Lightning (29-13-3), who also won 11 in a row from Jan. 29-Feb. 17, 2020. They defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 on Monday.

“It’s a long way from winning one in our first seven to start the year, I’ll tell you that,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Just tons of buy-in. Great group. Leaders, phenomenal. Check a lot of boxes of things you want in a team. Guys are getting rewarded. It’s a lot of fun.”

Evgeni Malkin scored a tying goal late in the third period, and Arturs Silovs made 30 saves for the Penguins (21-14-10), who have scored two total goals in three straight losses (0-2-1). They lost 2-1 at home to the Calgary Flames on Saturday and 1-0 at the Boston Bruins on Sunday.

“It’s getting to the inside,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “That's a team that makes it hard. I think it's easy for somebody to say, ‘You got to get there.’ And I think it's looking at other ways that maybe we can do a better job of getting inside position on their defense because they make it tough.”

Moser gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 14:13 of the third. Silovs dropped the puck after stopping a wrist shot from Yanni Gourde, allowing Moser to poke it underneath him.

“It’s just sometimes you have games like this,” Moser said. “Both teams played very well defensively and, yeah, sometimes it’s just a grind. You have to stay patient, not lose your head and then, hopefully, you get one at the end.”

Malkin tied it 1-1 with the extra attacker at 17:44, picking up a loose puck from the wall and scoring his 10th goal this season on a wrist shot from the right face-off circle off the post on the far side.

“I thought (the game) could have went either way,” Penguins defenseman Connor Clifton said. “’Geno,’ big-time goal for him. We could have scored some other goals. (Silovs) had some great saves and held us in it and so did Vasilevskiy on the other side.

“Everyone’s happy after 60, I think. Obviously, they get the extra point, so they’re going home happy and we’re (ticked)."

Gage Goncalves and Nikita Kucherov scored in the shootout for the Lightning. Vasilevskiy allowed Egor Chinakhov to score in the third round, but made saves on Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby in the first two.

“It was two good teams going at it,” Goncalves said. “A lot of veteran guys on each side and, you know, nobody wanted to be the one to make that first big mistake. Nobody really made it tonight.”

Chinakhov nearly put Pittsburgh ahead at 14:23 of the first period, but had a tipped shot go off the left post.

“It’s kind of been different from game to game,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “Over the weekend, I don’t know if we had all the tons of the looks that we wanted. I thought we got better at that tonight. We had a lot of really good looks.”

Darren Raddysh later could have given Tampa Bay a lead on a power play at 10:17 of the second period, when his one-timer from the left face-off circle got past Silovs’ glove but hit the crossbar.

NOTES: Kucherov had a 10-game point streak (25 points; 10 goals, 15 assists) and a nine-game multipoint streak (24 points; 10 goals, 14 assists) each end. ... Vasilevskiy extended his personal winning streak to eight games, matching John Gibson and Scott Wedgewood for the second-longest this season behind Brandon Bussi (nine). ... Malkin scored his sixth game-tying goal in the final three minutes of regulation to pass Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Rick Kehoe and Jake Guentzel (each with five) for the second most in franchise history. He only trails Crosby (eight). ... Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury on Tuesday. He will be re-evaluated in two weeks. ... Lightning forward Brayden Point did not play after sustaining an undisclosed injury against the Flyers on Monday. He is week to week, Cooper said. ... Rust led all skaters with six shots on goal in his return from missing two games with a lower-body injury.