Lightning Prevail to Force a Game 7

With Monday night’s 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Tampa Bay Lightning have forced a crucial game seven that will determine who will win the series.

Dwayne Roloson’s stellar play in net, along with Steve Downie’s 3-goal night helped the Lightning shut down the Pittsburgh Penguins in front of a sellout crowd at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Teddy Purcell, Sean Bergenheim and Ryan Malone also scored for the Lightning.

The game had a rough start for the Lightning as 8:23 into the first period Maxime Talbot pounced on a turnover off of Roloson’s stick and fired a pass to teammate Pascale Dupuis who put the puck into the back of the net.
But the Lightning roared back with two goals of their own.

Teddy Purcell scored his first goal of the playoffs when he jammed a loose puck through the sprawling Pittsburgh net minder Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the game at one, less than four minutes before the first period ended.

The second period was filled with penalties as the Lightning were guilty of five separate infractions, including one that gave Chris Conner a penalty shot halfway through the period. Conner’s attempt was unsuccessful as he bobbled the puck on his way in on Roloson. The Lightning penalty kill did the rest of the heavy lifting as they stopped all seven Pittsburgh powerplays.

Tampa’s first lead of the game came at 5:44 of the second period when Dominic Moore’s behind-the-back pass from below the goal line found its way to Sean Bergenheim who scored his 2nd goal of the playoffs.

The Penguins came out of the second intermission ready to take the lead away from the Bolts, and they displayed those intentions when Jordan Staal walked into the high slot and fired a wrist shot past Roloson to tie the game at two.

Just seconds later, Maxime Talbot charged the net hard along with Pascal Dupuis, but both players were stopped point-blank by Roloson. Riding the momentum from those key saves, the Lightning sought to take control of the game. At the 4:55 mark, Lecavalier took a pass from Gagne and fired it towards Downie who was left all alone in front of the net. He corralled the puck and slipped it through Fleury for the eventual game-winning goal.

The Pens couldn’t generate any dangerous scoring chances for the rest of the game. Halfway through the period, the Penguins tried to dump the puck into the Tampa zone, but the puck took a strange carom off the glass and landed on Matthias Ohlund’s stick. He took advantage of the broken play and quickly hit Ryan Malone who converted on the breakaway by firing a shot over Fleury’s shoulder.

Game seven between the Penguins and Lightning will be played on Wednesday, April 27 in Pittsburgh at a time to be announced.