TAMPA, Florida — The Pittsburgh Penguins stayed alive in the NHL Eastern Conference finals with a 5-2 win at Tampa Bay Tuesday, squaring the series 3-3 and forcing a decisive Game 7.
Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and Phil Kessel, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust and Nick Bonino also scored, sending the series to a decider in Pittsburgh Sunday.
The Penguins are hoping to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2009 and the Lightning looking to advance to the Cup Final for the second straight year.
“It’s a great opportunity for us. These are the type of circumstances to where you have an opportunity to write your own story,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said.
“They had a certain mindset going into this tonight: ‘We’re going to leave it all out there and do everything we can to bring this back to Pittsburgh,’” Sullivan added. “And, certainly that’s what they did.”
Crosby assisted on Kessel’s 5-on-3 power-play goal in the opening period and skated around Tampa Bay defenseman Anton Stralman into the clear before sending a wrist shot between goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy’s legs for a 3-0 lead in the final minute of the second period.
“We know the circumstances. It makes you go out there with a mindset of playing desperate,” Crosby said.
“In a big game like this you, don’t do anything special, just do your job. That’s gotten us this far.”
Brian Boyle scored twice in the third period for Tampa Bay, with one of the goals bouncing off Kessel before getting past Murray, who finished with 28 saves. The second score drew the Lightning within one goal with 7:17 remaining.
Rust’s breakaway goal gave Pittsburgh breathing room and Bonino added an empty-netter to finish it off.
Kessel’s goal was his team-leading ninth of the playoffs. Crosby had the primary assist, his first point since delivering game-winners in Games 2 and 3, and Evgeni Malkin also had an assist to extend his point streak to four games after a slow start in the series.
The Lightning had an apparent goal by Jonathan Drouin ruled out five minutes into the game, when Penguins coach Mike Sullivan successfully challenged that the young Tampa Bay winger was offside.
Pittsburgh switched back to rookie goaltender Matt Murray, after having used the more experienced Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 5 as he returned from a long absence due to concussion.
Tampa Bay will have to win on the road again to make the third Stanley Cup appearance in franchise history.
“I know we can. I’ve got confidence in this group. We believe we can do that,” Tampa Bay’s Ryan Callahan said. “We’ve had success on the road in the playoffs. We’ve had success in their building already. It’s going to be a good one.”
