Tampa Bay Lightning Come Up Short And Drop Game 6 To The Penguins

The Tampa Bay Lightning had a lackluster first and second period, which opened the door for the Penguins to defeat the Lightning 5-2 and force a Game 7 in Pittsburgh.

The pressure is on as the Tampa Bay Lightning makes their way into the Amalie Arena tonight. If the Lightning pull off a victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Lightning will emerge as the 2016 Eastern Conference Champions and move on to play the best the Western Conference has to offer for the Stanley Cup. On the other hand, if the Penguins come up with the win, the series moves back to Pittsburgh for Game 7.

The Tampa Bay Lightning came out in the first period like a team that truly wanted to win. They were aggressive with the puck and tight defensively. Unfortunately, some of the momentum was taken out of their sails by Dan O’Halloran and his officiating comrades.

Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Jonathan Drouin would score on a wide-open net left by Penguins netminder Matt Murray. Unfortunately, Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan elected to challenge the goal by the means of offside. After the referees reviewed the play, it was deemed offside and the goal was taken away.

The Lightning were certainly frustrated by this, but they knew they couldn’t let something like this get to them. There was plenty of hockey left to play, and having one goal taken away was inconsequential at the time. What the Bolts really needed to do was continue to fight on and get their goal back. If Murray continues to leave the net wide open, this shouldn’t be a very difficult task.

Unfortunately, it proved to be just that. The Tampa Bay Lightning allowed unnecessary penalties to get the best of them, and the only people who benefitted from it was the Pittsburgh Penguins. First, it was Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman who caught a soft call for Interference. Less than one minute Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman was sent to the sin bin for two minutes for Delay of Game.

The Hedman penalty opened the door for the Penguins to get on the board first. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby would set up Penguins leading scorer Phil Kessel for a shot up front. Unfortunately, Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had no chance of making the save on that play. The bad news is, that’s what happens when you’re 5-on-3 with your two best defensemen in the box.

When the buzzer would sound to end the first period, the Penguins would not only lead the Lightning 1-0, but they would outshoot the Bolts 14-4. As much of a proponent as we are of quality over quantity, four shots on goal in a game that could send you one-way to the Stanley Cup Final, four shots on goal in a period is blatantly unacceptable. If the Lightning had any chance of winning this game, the 2^nd period had to be better.

Unfortunately, while the Tampa Bay Lightning would make up for some of their deficit in shots on goal, the Lightning just couldn’t seem to get anything together in the early moments of the period. The first blow came when Kris Letang extended the Penguins’ lead over the Bolts to two. The second came when Lightning left wing Ondrej Palat took another unnecessary penalty as he was sent off for Slashing.

The only good thing to come out of this whole exchange is the Lightning were able to withstand the offense of the Penguins and keep the Pens out of the net during the PK. This has proven to be a difference-maker for the Tampa Bay Lightning. While the Lightning’s power play leaves much to be desired, for the most part, their penalty kill has been strong.

As the time continued to tick off the clock, the Tampa Bay Lightning seemed as if they couldn’t wait for the period to end. The offense has been essentially non-existent since the goal was taken away from Jonathan Drouin. One of the biggest missteps in the second period was when Tyler Johnson turned the puck over and Anton Stralman allowed the Penguins to blow the defense opening the door for Sidney Crosby to extend the Pens lead.

Remember what we said earlier about the Tampa Bay Lightning making up some space in regards to shots on goal. Yeah, well…as the period pressed on, that room seemed to disappear faster than cupcakes and a three-year-old’s birthday party. When the buzzer would sound to end the second period, the Penguins would once again outshoot the Lightning, this time by 12-7 for a two-period total of 26-11.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen…the Tampa Bay Lightning have only mustered 11 shots on goal by the end of the second period. If the Tampa Bay Lightning have any chance of coming back in the third period, the Lightning must start making plays and controlling the puck more efficiently. If we were Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper, we would be having a very serious conversation with our team in the locker room.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have all the talent they need to get the job done, but a non-stop series of small mistakes are allowing Game 6 to slip through their fingers. Don’t the Lightning remember what it felt like to watch the Chicago Blackhawks skate off the ice with the Stanley Cup right in front of their faces? Why would they want to feel that pain again?

This game is completely within reach for the Tampa Bay Lightning. All they need to do is focus on the task at hand and get the job done.

We don’t know what was said in the locker room during the intermission, but whatever it was certainly lit a fire under the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bolts were much more aggressive in the third period, creating scoring chance after scoring chance. It took a little over five minutes into the period, but the Tampa Bay Lightning would eventually find the back of the net.

It would be Tampa Bay Lightning center Brian Boyle who would surge in front of the net and fire off a shot. The shot would deflect off of Penguins right wing Phil Kessel, past Matt Murray, and into the back of the net to get the Lightning on the board for the first time tonight.

The Lightning goal was not the end of their surge. Early on in the period, the Tampa Bay Lightning would outshoot the Penguins 9-3. If the Bolts want to end this series tonight, we needed to see more of this before the sound of the final buzzer.

The way we approached this point in the game is the Tampa Bay Lightning needed to take the remainder of this game one goal at a time. As of this point in the game, the Lightning have 10 minutes to make something happen. In a game where a matter of seconds can make all the difference I the world, 10 minutes is plenty of time to get the job done and move onto the next round.

Just past the halfway point in the period, Brian Boyle would score his second goal of the night to make this a one-goal game. Unfortunately, once Bryan Rust got his stick on the puck he was able to blow past Victor Hedman and extend the Penguins lead to 4-2.

In the final minute of play, Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper elected to pull Andrei Vasilevskiy for the extra attacker. As much as we would like to disagree with his decision, at this point in the game, he had little choice but to do just that. Unfortunately, this opened the door for Penguins center Nick Bonino to hit the back of the empty net and put the final nail in the coffin of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The lackluster play in the first two periods of play allowed Evgeni Malkin’s guarantee to become a reality. This series is officially headed back to the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh for Game 7. It may not seem like it right now, but there is a bright side to this situation. The last time the Tampa Bay Lightning played the Pittsburgh Penguins in the postseason it took all seven games and the Lightning came out on top.

Surprisingly enough, the Tampa Bay Lightning outshot the Pittsburgh Penguins 20-8 in the third period. Unfortunately, being outshot and outmanned in the first two periods made the Lightning’s effort too little, too late. It pains us very dearly to say this, but if the Tampa Bay Lightning had played the first two periods like they did the third period, they would not have found themselves in this situation.

If the Tampa Bay Lightning wants to end this series and continue on to the 2016 Stanley Cup Final, they are simply going to have to find their consistency. The Bolts are going to be in hostile territory, so they are going to have to come out strong starting with the very first puck drop. The Lightning needs to control the pace of the game, make Matt Murray work for every single save he makes.

Next: Lightning Special Teams Is Like Night And Day

The Tampa Bay Lightning will be heading north to the Consol Energy Center on Thursday night to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of the 2016 Eastern Conference Final. It’s now a do-or-die situation for both teams. They simply must leave it all out on the ice. The puck is scheduled to drop at 8:00 p.m. You can watch the broadcast live on NBC Sports Network or listen to Dave Mishkin live on 970WFLA Tampa Bay.

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