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PENS STRIKE IN 2OT
AP
Photo
Pittsburgh Penguins players mob James Neal after he scored the game-winning goal during double-overtime in Game 4 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff series on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 in Tampa, Fla.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Dwayne Roloson (35) stops a shot by Pittsburgh Penguins right wing Chris Conner (16) during the third period in Game 4 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff series on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, in Tampa, Fla.
NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals
Game 4 (2 OT)
PENGUINS 3
LIGHTNING 2
Pittsburgh leads the series 3-1
GAME 5
Pittsburgh vs. Tampa Bay, Saturday at Noon at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh grabs 3-1 series edge
Associated Press
Tampa Bay, Fla.
James Neal scored 3:38 into the second overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series Wednesday night.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots — 12 of them in the extra periods — to help the Penguins take a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference matchup.
Game 5 is Saturday in Pittsburgh, with the Lightning needing a victory to keep their turnaround season alive.
Neal gathered a loose puck along the boards and sent the winning shot past goalie Dwayne Roloson, who had 50 saves for Tampa Bay.
Martin St. Louis scored late in the second period and Sean Bergenheim added his first career playoff with less than 4 minutes remaining in regulation as Tampa Bay rallied from a 2-0 deficit for the second straight game against Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
But unlike Game 3, when Pittsburgh’s Tyler Kennedy countered with the winning goal just 31 seconds after the Lightning tied it, Tampa Bay took this one into overtime.
The Lightning failed to take advantage of a power-play opportunity in the first OT, and got off only one shot in the second extra period before Neal ended it with his first goal of the playoffs.
Kennedy and Arron Asham scored, building Pittsburgh’s 2-0 lead in the first 23 minutes of the game. Even after St. Louis scored with 2:46 left in the second period, it looked as if the Penguins might be able to hold on when they killed Tampa Bay’s last two power-play opportunities of regulation to cling to a 2-1 lead.
But Bergenheim’s shot trickled through with 3:17 left in the third to even it, even though the Lightning had been outplayed up to that point.
Each team played without a player suspended one game by the NHL because of hits during Pittsburgh’s 3-2 victory in Game 3 on Monday night.
Tampa Bay’s Steve Downie was banned for leaving his feet and launching himself to level Penguins defenseman Ben Lovejoy, and Pittsburgh’s Chris Kunitz was disciplined for elbowing Lightning forward Simon Gagne in the head.
Pittsburgh was 0 for 15 on power-play opportunities — and just 6 for 81 in its previous 26 games overall — before Kennedy’s shot from the left circle got past Roloson for a 1-0 lead.
Asham’s third goal of the series made it 2-0 less than three minutes into the second period.
The Lightning played much of the night without the desperation of a team about to drop consecutive games at home and move to the brink of elimination from the postseason. The sellout crowd of 20,326 — with the exception of a generous number of Penguins fans — had little to cheer until Vincent Lecavalier led St. Louis with a pass that the Tampa Bay star turned into a momentum-changing goal.
St. Louis raced up the right wing, cut in front of Lovejoy just as the defenseman dove to try to get his stick on the puck and beat Fleury to the far post to give the Lightning a chance.