Penguins/Lightning Recap: Well, it was closer than the final score, but Pens still lose

It ends up being as close as a 5-2 game can be, Tampa pulls away late in a loss that will sting the Penguins

Pregame

Michael Bunting is out due to an apparently minor car accident today (he’s said to be OK but that’s a new one) which brings Philip Tomasino back for the IR to jump in. Tristan Jarry back in the net.

The visiting Lightning have the following groupings for today’s game:

First period

It’s a great start for Pittsburgh, but then again it might be more that there wasn’t a ton in the tank for Tampa (who played last night in New Jersey and traveled to Pittsburgh).

Shots go 15-2, the Pens get a power play but can’t score. Finally, they get through after Rickard Rakell takes advantage on a broken play. Marcus Pettersson’s shot gets blocked down but takes a fortunate bounce to Bryan Rust. Rust chops the puck down to Rakell, who is behind the Tampa defense. The Pens’ leading scorer finds his mark and puts home his 22nd goal of the season to open the scoring.

Shots are 15-2 in favor of Pittsburgh. Fittingly enough, Tampa nearly scored on their first shot — a great Jake Guentzel chance from in tight — but lo and behold, Jarry made the big save to keep them off the board! That’s what it takes to hold a 1-0 lead after 20.

Second period

Quiet start to the period, until Jesse Puljujarvi cuts in laterally and crunches Guentzel. It looks like a bad collision but the refs go to an auto-review after issuing an initial five minute major. The video review shows Puljujarvi is late, but he keeps his arms in and doesn’t contact Guentzel’s head (novel concept!) so his penalty is reduced to a simple two-minute minor. Bad break for Tampa in that Victor Hedman is also sent to the box for two minutes for his response to confront Puljujarvi.

As the 4v4 is about to expire, the Lightning find a goal. Brandon Hagel on the rush plays Erik Karlsson with a fake shot then drags a deke to the outside and rockets a shot by Jarry. 1-1 game with 13:06 to play. Shots are 16-4 Pens, but the score is tied.

The Lightning don’t dominate but are more awake. Erik Cernak hits a post. Play continues and eventually Hedman passes back to Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov floated back in the offensive zone to find space and one-timed a puck in past Jarry. 2-1 Tampa lead.

Pittsburgh makes a run at one late, Rust shoots from in tight and then Jonas Johnansson makes a sprawling leg pad save on Rakell for the rebound.

Tampa takes a 2-1 lead into the second intermission, despite the Pens up 25-9 in shots.

Third period

Crosby gets a long pass from Kris Letang and shoots on the backhand to start the period strong. Tampa takes an early penalty to give Pittsburgh it’s second power play of the night. Kevin Hayes cashes in from the doorstep to tie it back up. 17:43 to go.

Momentum has swung back to the Pens, Karlsson draws another power play while getting tied up after attacking into the offensive zone. Matt Grzelcyk fans on a shot attempt to lead to a Hagel breakaway, but luckily Jarry keeps it out of the net with a clutch stop in the most notable exchange on it.

Tampa strikes with just over 3 minutes to play, Kucherov picks the pocket of Acciari at the blueline and comes out of no where for a quick breakaway. He makes no mistakes going upstairs on Jarry. 3-2 game with Tampa in front.

The Pens pull their goalie, but there is no magic to be found on this night. Anthony Cirelli nets an open cage goal with 1:12 left to make it 4-2.

Pittsburgh calls their timeout. They pull their goalie again, and Tampa again takes advantage with an ENG to make the final score look more lopsided than the game was. It’ll end at 5-2.

Some thoughts

• Noel Acciari left the game in the first period, hit by a follow-through of Guentzel’s shooting motion and crashing into the net. Looked like he was bleeding from the head as he left the ice. Poor Acciari has been taking sticks to the face left and right lately, he’s just a magnet for punishment. But like the old truck that takes the abuse and keeps rattling on, Acciari was back in the game taking his shift by the middle of the second period.
• The feel good nature loses its luster when Acciari coughs one up at a pivotal moment late in the third. Yeah, it’s up against Kucherov a multi-time scoring champ. He’s going to make some plays, but Acciari (and Grzelcyk before him on the sequence) had opportunity to get the puck going north. They failed. It proved to be the game-decider.
• Puljujarvi had six hits last night in the summary, but not too many stood out. The big open ice hit on Guentzel certainly did, but not for the right reasons. Luckily he didn’t go for a kill shot up high, but the big late hit seemed to wake Tampa up, or give them a reason to get invested in this game. They were pretty dormant beforehand and the hit provided a turning point, which may have come anyways. It’s a no-win situation for Puljujarvi, he needs to bring the heat and make an impact but this could be another example of why coaching harps on his awareness and mental focus as far as the wisdom and timing of when to make a mark.
• Puljujarvi also iced a puck with 2:45 to go in the second, where it looked like he could have driven to get the red line before dumping it. The rest of the Penguins were tired and had to stay on the ice, leading to about 25 more seconds of Tampa zone time and a couple of shot attempts. It’s little details like that under the surface that go to explain why Puljujarvi is where he is with the team on the border zone of being a scratch.
• The Pens would be a no doubt playoff team if you could go NHL94 style and turn line changes off and play the Crosby line all night long. They were a treat to watch hold the puck and play down in the Tampa end all night. At one point deep in the second period, all forwards on the line had at least three SOG and had combined for 11 of the team’s first 17 shots.
• With about five minutes to go, a bullet for this was forming in my head to point out that while Kucherov had one goal, Pittsburgh had done a wonderful job against Brayden Point (no points) and Guentzel (a secondary assist on the Kucherov goal). Thanks to Kucherov, a few seconds later he’s at 2G+1A and his team wins. The perks of have a prime-age Art Ross type of player, right there.
• This loss will sting, Pittsburgh was up by a 2-to-1 margin (33-16) in shots before the empty netters. Moneypuck had the expected goals at 4- 1.36 in their favor prior to the Kucherov GWG, a fitting indicator of how the game unfolded. And then, one costly mistake and a couple of empty netters and a game that was mostly under control ends up looking less than competitive on the final score. Tough one to take, if they could have survived three more minutes that would have been another overtime game and at least a point for the standings, but instead they come up empty.

Brutal weekend for the home-standing Pens. Coming off the high of the rare victory over Edmonton on Thursday, Pittsburgh falls twice in as many days to trudge on for a situation that looks and feels a lot less rosy than it did about 28 hours earlier from the time of this writing. It’s not surprising to end up taking an L against the Bolts, but the manner in which is slipped away has to be the latest in deflating moments for a team stuck towards the bottom of the middle (or..maybe worse).