Pens on the brink after blowing lead

The Penguins are on the brink of elimination for the first time in this post season after a 4-3 OT loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. This loss leaves the Lightning one win away from returning to the Stanley Cup finals for back-to-back years. The Penguins will have to dig deep and win on the road, a tough ask in such an important game.

Sullivan made a big call before the game to switch from Matt Murray to Marc Andre Fleury. Murray, who has done well in this post season, was being beaten in a regular way by the Lightning and wasn't adjusting. With Fleury on the sidelines he made the same call that I think many others would make. It didn't quite work though as Fleury conceded 4+ goals for the 28th time in the play offs.

The game started out at a tentative pace with only 5 shots being recorded after around 5 minutes and in total the first period only ended up seeing just 12 shots in the first period. It took until the very end for Dumoulin to become the first player from Maine to score in the Stanley Cup play offs.

Pittsburgh started the second period strongly with Patric Hornqvist scoring just 1 minute 30 seconds in. Crosby made a great play down the puck to keep it and played it back to Maatta who shots was redirected by Hagelin to Hornqvist to pot in. They also ended the period strong, with Kunitz scoring on a Malkin rebound.

The only problem was the middle bit which saw the Lightning score twice just 1 minute 10 apart with Killorn and Kucherov. It was a soft goal for Fleury to give up with Killorn scoring from the half-boards to beat Fleury low. Kucherov scored shortly after off a nice Namestikov feed to tie it before Kunitz's buzzer beater.

The Bolts would have felt they could have won the game in the third period had Ryan Callahan been more lucky but Kucherov's wraparound goal with just over 3 minutes left was enough to take it to overtime before a Garrison shot deflected in off Tyler Johnson's rear and past Fleury to put the Penguins on the brink.

The Penguins will need to regroup as their performance in the third wasn't good enough and they need to re-learn the defensive skills that they used so well in the first round of the play offs against the Rangers. They can beat the Bolts but if they play like they did today and in Game 4 then they'll be toast.

The biggest question will be if Sullivan sticks with a poor Marc-Andre Fleury who could have played his last Penguins game, or go with Murray after a short break with the hope he has learned and is able to counter the high shots better. We'll find out tomorrow.