Heading in to the game Tampa Bay talked at length about how they had learned their lessons from last season when they were in the same situation, heading home for Game 6 with a series lead and the chance to clinch a Final berth in front of their fans.
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A year ago, much like these 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Lightning was up 3-2, dropped Game 6 at home when they had a chance to win the series, then travelled to a hostile environment- in that particular case, New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Sidney Crosby (C) of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with his teammates Phil Kessel (L) and Matt Cullen after scoring a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game Six of the Eastern Conference finals at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday.
Brian Boyle scored both goals for the Lightning, who are seeking to reach their second straight Stanley Cup finals. Bryan Rust got a breakaway goal with 2:08 left and Nick Bonino added an empty-net goal with 53 seconds left to pull away.
Kessel wasn’t producing with his new team, but now he leads the team in points during this playoff run.
G Matthew Murray after starting Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 5.
The Lightning had an apparent goal by Jonathan Drouin waived off a little more than five minutes into the game, when Sullivan successfully challenged that the young Tampa Bay winger was offside on the play before tapping in a rebound off Ondrej Palat’s shot that bounced off Murray’s pads.
The Pittsburgh Penguins enter Game 7 after staving off the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6, and sending the series back to the Consol Energy Center for tonight’s contest (8 pm ET).
Now that the Penguins have forced a Game 7, if successful, Pittsburgh has the opportunity to move on to the Stanley Cup Finals in front of its home crowd.
When the Penguins needed them the most, Pittsburgh’s stars stepped up and helped force a Game 7, TH2N breaks down the Penguins’ big win.
Last year, he was on the bench as Ben Bishop pitched a brilliant shutout in Tampa Bay’s 2-0 victory that sent it to the Cup final. When I get back out there I’ve had a lot of fun playing. “I think one of his biggest strengths is just his ability to stay in the moment and not get overwhelmed by the circumstances”. He’s not going to light up the scoresheet – seven points in 17 games – but he plays excellent defense against opponents’ top forwards, logs over 20 minutes per game and starts breakouts with quick, accurate passes out of the defensive zone. Crosby so far has clinched Games 2, 3 and 6 for the Penguins.
“You’ve got to like that the kid feels pretty comfortable playing there”, Cooper said, “and we like that”.
“I know we can”.
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Murray started the first four games of the series. They have now clinched back-to-back series in Pittsburgh with a chance to do it again Thursday night. “Our focus is not on the Tampa Bay Lightning”, Sullivan said. I am all about that kind of confidence… as long as they don’t get too overly confident with it. We didn’t do a good job of that, and it’s not just the D but the whole team, everybody working as a unit, being open, calling for the puck, helping out for support. By the end of the 2nd it was 3-0, Pens, and they’d outshot the Lightning 26-11. The Lightning were 0 for 1, dropping to 2 for 12. NY entered the contest 7-0 all-time in Game 7s at Madison Square Garden, but poised Tampa Bay blanked it 2-0. He’s 10-4 overall in the playoffs.
