Bolts take Game 1 over Pittsburgh, 3-1 Bishop injured in first period

PITTSBURGH – Hobbled, bruised and outgunned the Tampa Bay Lightning still found a way to hand the Pittsburg Penguins a 3-1 Game 1 loss in the Eastern Confe4rence Final on Friday night.

Ben Bishop was injured early in the first period trying to twist and stop a Pens shot but his left leg in a painful looking contortion of the leg.

“We’re hoping for the best,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.  Cooper did report that x-rays were negative.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stepped into the crease and made 33 saves to backstop the win.

“In the first two periods, I didn’t feel good,” Vasilevskiy said. “So I was cold and tough mentally, but when we scored three goals, I got some confidence and in the third period, I felt pretty good. I got some shots and just warmed up.”

Vasilevskiy is no stranger to the Stanley Cup playoffs; he won Game 2 last year against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Final.

“For someone as young as he is, He’s already played in a Stanley Cup Final,” Cooper said. “He was called on in the biggest moments last year, and talk about pushing somebody down the learning curve a little faster than we wanted to … Nobody on the bench was thinking ‘Oh, we’re nervous. Vasilevskiy is going in.'”

As if to prove their coach correct, Tampa scored first on a goal from Alex Killorn late in the opening frame.

The Bolts extended the lead to 2-0 on a power play goal from Ondrej Palat early in the second period.

Jonathan Drouin made it 3-0 as the second period was winding down.

Patric Hornqvist was the lone goal scorer for the Pens; his goal came 16 seconds after Drouin’s goal.

Matt Murray took the loss on 17 saves.

It appeared that the Penguins were getting frustrated as the game clock wound down with players chirping at teammates, something to be cleared up as the series progresses.

“They defend hard. They block shots,” Sullivan said. “They have people in the lanes. They have good support mechanism built in place when somebody gets beat. I thought we generated a fair amount of chances. We have to find a way to convert.”