Crosby ends slump in OT as Pens even East finals
PITTSBURGH -- Sidney Crosby scored his first goal in nine games only 40 seconds into overtime, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 Monday night to even the Eastern Conference finals at one win apiece.
The Penguins rallied after giving up a two-goal lead.
Crosby has never gone nine consecutive playoff games without a goal -- and he still hasn't, and the Penguins now go to Tampa for Game 3 on Wednesday with the best-of-seven series level.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan shook up his lines late in the game to try to get his stars going, and Crosby came through by putting a shot under the crossbar to win it. Pittsburgh pressed from the start of the extra period, and Crosby emerged with his first overtime goal in 113 playoff games.
Matt Murray won the battle of 21-year-old backup goaltenders, making 19 saves and not allowing a goal after giving up two in a span of 2:33 in the first period.
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was exceptional, making 38 saves, but it wasn't good enough on a night when his teammates couldn't produce a goal in the final two periods or overtime.
Pittsburgh took all three of the shots in OT.
The Penguins got off to exactly the start they wanted in what could be viewed as a must-win game, getting goals from Matt Cullen and Phil Kessel less than 10 minutes into the game.
However, with Vasilevskiy turning aside several more excellent scoring chances -- including Bryan Rust on a rush off the opening faceoff -- the Lightning came back after killing off Alex Killorn's holding penalty at 13:23.
Defenseman Anton Stralman, back in the lineup for the first time since breaking his left leg on March 25, got the comeback started by gathering a bouncing puck and lifting it under the crossbar at 16:37.
Stralman needed only a moment to get open, and that occurred when Sidney Crosby and Conor Sheary bumped into each other just as Crosby was skating toward Stralman, who scored his fifth goal in four games against Pittsburgh this season.
Jonathan Drouin tied it 2:33 later, taking J.T. Brown's pass at mid-ice, skating to the top of the left circle for a wrist shot and beating Murray inside the far post. Drouin, in the lineup because of Steven Stamkos' injury, has 11 points in 12 playoff games after getting 10 in 21 regular season games.
Neither team scored in the second, when Murray kept the score tied with an excellent save on Killorn late in the period.
Cullen, who is having an excellent postseason for Pittsburgh at age 39, scored his fourth of the playoffs at 4:32 of the first, off a rebound of an Eric Fehr shot.
Kessel scored his 19th goal in 35 playoff games -- and sixth of these playoffs -- about five minutes later after Carl Hagelin's shot rebounded to Nick Bonino, whose pass deflected off Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr's skate directly to Kessel.
NOTES: Penguins RW Patric Hornqvist took a puck to the head during warmups, but remained in the lineup. ... Lightning RW Ryan Callahan was not suspended for his punishing hit on Penguins D Kris Letang in Game 1, but was held out with the flu. ... Lightning D Anton Stralman played for the first time since breaking his left leg March 25. .... G Andrei Vasilevskiy made his first start since April 9, even though Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop (lower body injury) apparently was not seriously injured while playing a puck in the first period of Game 1 on Friday. ... Lightning captain Steven Stamkos (blood clot surgery on April 4) is skating again but was not cleared to play. ... Pittsburgh held out D Olli Maatta, who was a minus-1 in Game 1, and replaced him with Justin Schultz. ... The Lightning scratched RW Mike Blunden, D Nikita Nesterov, D Matt Taormina and D Luke Witkowski. The Penguins held out Maatta, G Jeff Zatkoff, D Derrick Pouliot, RW Beau Bennett and RW Oskar Sundqvist.