In Tampa, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Tristan Jarry made 39 saves on Thursday night, and scored a goal with less than two minutes to go in the game for 4-2 win over the Lightning.
“It was kind of a perfect scenario,” Jarry said. “They dumped it right on net and I didn’t even have to stop it. I just shot it right on the fly and it ended up going in.”
Tampa Bay had taken a 2-0 lead after the first period, and were unable to hold the advantage, surrendering four unanswered goals in the loss.
“This was a gutsy effort by the whole group,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought our team competed hard. The pushback after the first period was terrific. We were proud of them. I thought we defended hard down the stretch. A lot of guys had really strong games for us.”
The Penguins moved to 11-10-1.
Steven Stamkos and Tanner Jeannot were the first period strikers for Tampa in taking the 2-0 lad.
Stamkos scored at 9:06 of the opening stanza for a 1-0 lad, and Jeannot hit off the power play at 12:33.
“I think it’s just the same story over the last couple of games,” Stamkos said. “We’re playing some of the better hockey in spurts, but the mistakes that we’re making are just tough ones that end up in the back of our net.
“That was probably the best hockey we played all year in the first period. Smothering them, skating, backchecking. … It was the recipe. But then a couple of plays lead to chances for some really good players, and they make you pay.”
Sidney Crosby scored at 8:53 of the middle frame to trim the deficit to 2-1 for the Panes.
Drew O’Connor scored with 36 seconds left in the second to send the game to the third period tied, 2-2.
“Listen, we’ve got the best goalie in the League on our team,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “But if you’re going to give Sidney Crosby a breakaway and if you’re going to give Malkin an on-track 2-on-1 and then you give up another 3-on-2 … I think those are the only three odd-man rushes they had all night, and they scored on all three of them.”
The Lightning dropped to 10-9-5.
Jeff Carter scored at 2:49 of the third for a 3-2 lead.
“It felt good [to score],” Carter said. “It’s been a while. They came out and played good hockey, and we sat back a little bit. We have guys that have been around a while and we knew it wasn’t good enough. ‘Jars’ made some big saves in the first to give us a chance.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves in the loss.
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