Better Effort, Similar Outcome in Penguins’ Loss to Lightning

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ performance against Tampa Bay Sunday was a lot better than it had been when they played Ottawa a day earlier.

The result wasn’t, though.

Sure, the Penguins acquitted themselves fairly well against the Lightning, as evidenced by their 33-18 advantage in shots, but their 5-2 loss to Tampa Bay at PPG Paints Arena did no more for them in the Eastern Conference playoff race than a 5-0 humbling by the Senators Saturday had.

Which is to say, none at all.

The loss dropped the Penguins’ record to 18-19-8 and again prevented them from claiming at least a temporary share of the second wild-card berth in the Eastern playoff field.

The Penguins trailed, 2-1, after two periods, but tied the game on a power-play goal by Kevin Hayes at 2:17 of the third, 66 seconds after Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh was penalized for high-sticking Drew O’Connor.

Hayes flipped in a shot from the right side of the crease for his seventh of the season and third in the past five games. Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby got the assists.

Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry stopped Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel on a shorthanded breakaway after Lightning center Anthony Cirelli went off for hooking, but the Penguins were unable to manufacture a go-ahead goal before than man-advantage expired.

That proved to be costly when Noel Acciari had the puck stolen by Tampa Bay winger Nikita Kucherov, who charged down the slot and beat Jarry high on the stick side for what proved to be the game-winner at 16:57. Cirelli and Nick Paul added empty-net goals to pad the Lightning’s margin of victory.

The Penguins played without two-thirds of their usual No. 2 line.

Left winger Michael Bunting was involved in an auto accident near the arena a few hours before the opening faceoff and, while coach Mike Sullivan said he is “OK,” was held out of the game. Center Evgeni Malkin, meanwhile, was placed on injured-reserve and sat out his fourth game in a row because of an unspecified upper-body injury.

Sullivan said Malkin’s status was unchanged, so he presumably went on IR to open a spot on the active roster for winger Phil Tomasino, who was activated from the injured list and replaced Bunting in the lineup.

He was deployed on the right side of the second line, with O’Connor on left wing and Cody Glass in the middle.

Acciari was shaken up about six minutes into the opening period when he crashed into the net while hustling back on defense. He appeared to have been high-sticked by Lightning winger Jake Guentzel, but no penalty was called.

Acciari went directly to the dressing room when play was stopped and did not return until after the first intermission.

The Penguins got the first power play of the game just over two minutes later, as Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman was called for tripping Anthony Beauvillier at 8:03, but could not capitalize.

Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson preserved the tie with just over 7 1/2 minutes to go in the period by denying Penguins winger Bryan Rust after he burst past the Tampa Bay defense.

The Pittsburgh Penguins went in front, 1-0, at 14:20, on Rakell’s 22nd of the season.

A Marcus Pettersson shot from near the blue line had been blocked, but Rust was able to chip the puck ahead to Rakell, who was alone near the inner edge of the right circle and snapped a shot past Johansson.

The Penguins had a 14-2 edge in shots during the first 20 minutes.

Hagel pulled the Lightning even at 6:54 of the second, whipping a shot past Jarry from inside the left circle. The goal came on Tampa Bay’s fourth shot and with one second remaining in a stretch of four-on-four play brought about by minors to Jesse Puljujarvi and Hedman.

Kucherov lashed a slap shot past Jarry’s glove from high on the right side of the slot at 16:04 to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead at the second intermission.

The Pittsburgh Penguins will have a scheduled day off Monday before closing out their homestand by taking on Seattle Tuesday at 7:08 p.m.