Tampa Bay pulls away in third period to beat Pens
Associated Press
TAMPA, FLA.
Martin St. Louis scored the tie-breaking goal early in the third and added a late empty-netter to help the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 on Wednesday night.
St. Louis blew past Penguins defenseman Ben Lovejoy and lifted a shot over goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to put Tampa Bay up 4-3 with 13:20 to play, then made it a two-goal game with Fleury on the bench for an extra skater with 30.8 seconds remaining.
Dana Tyrell, Teddy Purcell and Vincent Lecavalier also scored for the Lightning.
Pittsburgh got goals from Craig Adams, Matt Cooke and Pascal Dupuis. The Penguins have lost two in a row, including a 1-0 overtime loss at St. Louis on Saturday night, after a four-game winning streak.
Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos, who shared the NHL goal-scoring title (51) last season with Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, had three assists. Crosby, held to two goals in his last 12 games against the Lightning, had an assist.
After Tyrell scored his first NHL goal at 2:51 of the first, Pittsburgh scored the next three goals, including two while short-handed by Adams (3:28) and Cooke (4:29). Adams, who assisted on the Pittsburgh’s other two first-period goals, stopped a personal 118-game goal drought, dating to Dec. 16, 2008, against Edmonton.
Dupuis made it 3-1 at 12:15 of the first, with the goal coming 11 seconds after Pittsburgh killed off a short-handed situation. Purcell got Tampa Bay to 3-2 with 3:20 left in the first.
Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith was pulled 12:15 into the first after allowing three goals on seven shots. Dan Ellis replaced Smith.
The Lightning tied it 3 on Lecavalier’s goal during a 5-on-3 power play at 8:43 of the second. Tampa Bay had several short-handed chances later in the period, including Nate Thompson hitting the crossbar on a breakaway and Fleury stopping Sean Bergenheim on a penalty shot.
The two teams combined for just 14 goals — seven by both — in four games last season.