All expectations were that the Penguins would have to weather the storm (ha ha) going into Tampa Bay for the first 10 minutes or so before they would be able to get to their game. Lightning fans filtered into the arena, receiving rally drums (what the hell is a rally drum?) to send their team to victory. It was the Penguins though, who were ready to rally.
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| You've been rally drummed. |
The first period started with a roaring Tampa Bay crowd and an even more forceful Penguins team. Pittsburgh came out flying, clearly trying to impose their will and hush the crowd. Both teams were throwing the body with reckless abandon, which favored the Penguins heavily. Six minutes into the first period, Steve Downie leveled Ben Lovejoy behind the Penguins net, but Lovejoy got the outlet pass up the boards to Max Talbot before getting crushed. Talbot skated in with a 2 on 1 and wristed a shot past Roloson to give the Pens an early 1-0 lead. Big hit on one end, goal on the other, point Penguins.
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| Clearly didn't leave his feet, not sure what all you Pens fans are talking about. |
Less than a minute later, Letang outlet-passed to Rupp. As Rupp crossed the blue line, a Lightning defender went for the body instead of the puck and Rupp got past the hit with the puck. This led to another 2 on 1 and Rupp made the perfect pass to elude Pavel Kubina and land on the stick of Arron Asham, who one-timed it in for a 2-0 lead. Timeout Tampa Bay.
The game settled down a bit after the timeout and then Chris Kunitz took one of the dumbest penalties I've ever seen him take. Kunitz was skating back into the Penguins zone and elbowed Simon Gagne in the head, clear as day. That hit, along with Downie's, is being reviewed by the NHL today. The Penguins killed that penalty, and then promptly got called for one that never happened. While buzzing in the offensive zone, Alex Kovalev was cross-checked into Roloson (we'll ignore that Neal promptly missed an empty net, because it wouldn't have counted) and given 2 minutes for interference. The Lightning wouldn't be denied on this chance as Martin St. Louis scored his 2nd goal of the series. Both have been on the powerplay.
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| Shredder addresses the media about Krang's plan for world domination via Special Teams. |
The Penguins started the 2nd period on the powerplay. I'll let you guess the result. Most of the 2nd period continued on with frantic back and forth play, great goaltending on both ends, and just fun hockey to watch. Late in the 2nd period, the Penguins received another powerplay chance. Can you guess the result again? Pittsburgh is now 0 for 15 on the powerplay in this series. Neal missed another golden chance on this one as Roloson gave him the top half of the net and he shot it directly into Roloson's leg pads.
Going into the 3rd period with a 1 goal lead, you had to feel antsy and yet confident. The Penguins are no strangers to 1 goal games, and they know how to finish them. Well, if this was your thought process, you got sucker punched a minute into the 3rd period. Paul Martin took an interference call and St. Louis promptly scored his 2nd goal of the game and 3rd of the series, all on the powerplay. Tampa Bay is now 4 for 11 on the powerplay in this series.
Luckily, Tyler Kennedy wasted all of 35 seconds before recovering the lead for good as Staal won a big faceoff back to Letang, who passed it to Orpik, who got it to Kennedy to finish off the goal. The rest of the period went penalty free and goal free as Tampa frantically attacked but Fleury and the defense were up to the challenge. Michalek and Adams both came up with big shot blocks late in the game and the Penguins preserved the win to go up 2-1 in the series.
3 Stars:
#3 - Fleury (25 saves, .926 save %)
#2 - St. Louis (2g)
#1 - Letang (2a)
Notes/Thoughts:
- I expect 1-2 games for Kunitz and 2-3 for Downie for their hits. Honestly, Kunitz deserves more, but will not get it because he is not a "repeat offender" and Downie deserves less, but will get more because his name is Steve Downie. (Update - Each got 1 game and will miss Game 4)
- Arron Asham is your leading Penguins goal scorer in the playoffs....3 cheers for Ray Shero!
- Big bounce back games from Letang and Michalek in this game after a lackluster Game 2. Martin played better as well, but Letang and Michalek were both fantastic in this one.
- Jordan Staal looks overmatched right now. I'm not sure if it's the minutes he's logging, or the stress of playing against the top D pairings now, but he is definitely out of sorts. Staal has been on the ice or in the box for 5 of the 7 Lightning goals this series.
- Can we drop Kovalev off of the top line yet? I would rather see Kunitz move up to that line to give Neal more help. Neal clearly needs a spark to get his goal scoring game back, and Kovalev certainly isn't going to provide that. Also, Neal should be kidney punched for every chance he misses, because this is getting absurd.
- Nick Johnson is close to returning from injury, though don't expect him to crack the lineup.
- Crosby skated with the team today after taking the last 2 days off of the ice. Still no prognosis. But I must say, it looks bleaker and bleaker the longer he does not take contact.
- Game 5's start time on Saturday will be 12pm.
Game 4 coming up on Wednesday at 7pm. LET'S GO PENS!!! 2 down, 14 to go!!
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