Penguins struck by Lightning

Tampa Bay outscores Pittsburgh 5-1 to tie playoff series at one game apiece

Associated Press

Pittsburgh

Martin St. Louis didn’t need three broken teeth to provide any more motivation in helping the Tampa Bay Lightning bounce back in their first-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“My motivation is we were down 1-0,” St. Louis said. “It’s not because I lose teeth.”

Either way, the diminutive forward put some bite back in a Lightning offense by scoring a goal and adding an assist in a 5-1 victory Friday night in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series.

Defenseman Eric Brewer led the charge with a goal and two assists and the Lightning rediscovered their high-powered offense to blow the game open with a three-goal first period. The five goals — capped by Mattias Ohlund’s empty-netter — were the most the Lightning have scored in a road playoff game.

The eruption came two nights after they were utterly stymied by Marc-Andre Fleury’s acrobatic 32-save performance in a 3-0 series-opening loss. And it was a forgettable game for St. Louis, who was livid no penalty was called after he was cracked across the face by Zbynek Michalek’s errant stick in the second period.

Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier wasn’t surprised by how St. Louis responded.

“I don’t think three teeth would hold him off for tonight,” said Lecavalier, who scored a goal.

Nate Thompson also scored, while Simon Gagne had three assists. Dwayne Roloson made 35 saves, including 14 in the final period.

Craig Adams scored for the Penguins, who came out flat and will have two days to regroup for Game 3 at Tampa Bay on Monday night.

Pittsburgh was undone by sub-par goaltending from Fleury, uncharacteristic defensive miscues and a more familiar problem of lacking finish. That’s something the team’s struggled with in playing much of the final half of its season without captain Sidney Crosby (concussion) and Evgeni Malkin (knee).

Fleury wasn’t pleased with his 16-save outing.

“They do have a good offense, but I was still hoping to definitely do better than tonight,” Fleury said. “I’ll have to if we want to keep winning.”

Another concern is the Penguins’ anemic power play, which went 0 for 7. Pittsburgh is 0 for 13 in the series and has converted just six of its past 79 power-play opportunities over the past 25 games.

“I think we have to understand what the problem and the situation is and we didn’t execute very well on the power play tonight,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “We have to be much better to think we’re going to have a chance to have success.”