Lightning streak ends at five

In Tampa, the Lightning’s five-game win streak crashed on Thursday night, as the Pittsburgh Penguins handed them a 5-1 defeat.

“It was one of our more complete efforts all year long,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought we had contributions from everybody on both sides of the net. For me what was probably the most encouraging part was our third period, I thought we continued to play the game on our toes. We created a lot of offense through our defense.”

Danton Heinen and Sidney Crosby staked the Pens to a 2-0 lead in the first period.

Tristan Jarry made 20 saves in the Pens win.

“We knew we hadn’t been great off the start and that’s something that we focused on,” the Penguins’ Bryan Rust said, “If we play the way we can, the way we want to and the way that we know that we are capable of, I think we can do some pretty good things.”

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was the lone striker for the Lightning.

“This one is on us as a staff and on the players as well, it’s unacceptable to come out like we did,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “But Pittsburgh was exceptional and give them credit. They came into a game I’m sure they had circled on the calendar, and they imposed their will on us and we had no answer.”

Pittsburgh improved to 34-14-8.

“I’m not sitting here and saying Pittsburgh is a better team than us,” Cooper said. “They’re a really good team and we’re a really good team. They were exponentially better than us tonight. So for one night, give them credit.”

Brock McGinn and Jake Guentzel also scored for the Pens.

Evgeni Malkin hit for a goal and three points in the win.

“I thought that was ‘Geno’s’ best game of the year to this point,” Sullivan said. “I’ve felt like he’s getting better and better with each game. Tonight I thought he was in beast mode.”

The Lightning dropped to 35-12-6.

“It’s hard to play from behind in the league, especially against a good team like Pittsburgh,” the Lightning’s Pat Maroon said. “They come with a lot of pace. They kind of play like us — shot mentality, scramble game, [defensemen] down, back to the net, second and third opportunities. They gave it to us tonight.”

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves in the Tampa loss.