Penguins at Lightning
The defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins were unstoppable during a four-game winning streak and look to stay hot when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday in a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference final. Pittsburgh boasts 24 goals during a 4-0-0 stretch without much help from their power play and face a Lightning squad struggling to keep the puck out of its net.
Pittsburgh scored three times in the first 7:34 en route to a 5-1 victory over Florida on Thursday in the first leg of its quick Sunshine State trip. “It’s nice to start with the lead. It was kind of weird the way things worked out,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby told reporters. “We didn’t have many shots, but we had a few goals right off the bat.” Tampa Bay suffered a demoralizing 5-1 loss to Vancouver at home on Thursday - the fourth time the Lightning have allowed at least five goals during a 1-5-1 stretch. “I don’t even remember losing games by four goals, ever,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told reporters. “Maybe one a year. We’re losing them at once a week now. It comes down to defending.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, ROOT (Pittsburgh), FSN Sun (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (17-7-3): Pittsburgh has moved to second in the league in scoring (3.37 per game) despite a power play that ranks in the middle of the pack and is 1-for-30 over the last nine games. Crosby recorded four goals and six assists during his current six-game point streak while linemate Patric Hornqvist boasts eight points over the last nine contests. Evgeni Malkin, who owns 28 points - one behind Crosby for the team lead - and Phil Kessel (27) were held off the scoresheet Thursday but fourth-line center Matt Cullen netted a goal for the third straight game.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (14-12-2): Tampa Bay isn’t scoring goals either, managing only one against Vancouver on a season-high 41 shots and two over the last three games overall while going 3-for-27 on the power play in a nine-game span. Right wing Nikita Kucherov, who leads the team with 13 goals and 29 points, was kept off the scoresheet in four of the last six games and finished with a career-worst minus-4 rating Thursday. Speedy forward Jonathan Drouin had the only goal for the Lightning against Vancouver and boasts four points in his last three games with a plus-3 rating.
OVERTIME
1. Tampa Bay G Andrei Vasilevskiy, who had a .923 save percentage against the Penguins in the Eastern finals last season, will likely be in net Saturday.
2. Pittsburgh D Justin Schultz registered three goals and five assists during a career-best five-game point streak.
3. Lightning C Vladislav Namestnikov owns a minus-7 rating in 27 games this season after finishing with a plus-17 in 2015-16.