O.K., so if you hear the words Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and late-game heroics in the sam sentence what recent event do you think of? Obviously, the Super Bowl is being referenced here in some way but, cleverly, that's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is tonight's game pitting the struggling Penguins against the lowly Lightning. Now, in nature this would not be much of a matchup and for the first two periods it wasn't much of a contest in the friendly confines of the Mellon Arena. Then, Evgeni Malkin lifted the team on his shoulders as one of only a few players to give consistent effort through grinding in the corners andlaying at least one Lightning plaer out.
The Pens were down 3-0 and not really accumulating a lot of quality scoring chances. But a few lucky bounces later the Pens pulled within one and soon finally tied the game late in regulation with the type of gritty, in front of the net goal Steigy and Bob Errey are always saying you need to win in the NHL.
That actionwas all well and good but OT promised even more. Back and forth actione nsued for almost the full five minutes until yet another lucky break (a defender without a stick) allowed Jordan Staal to push the puck in front to Malkin who buried the puck in the net and the Lightnig deeper in the Eastern Conference standings.
Could this be a turning point? Let's all hope so.
