The Penguins tried their hardest, but they couldn’t battle their way out of a four-goal deficit, as they lost 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Tampa on Tuesday.
The Penguins will still be able to cruise into the holiday break atop the Eastern Conference with 49 points despite an 0-1-1 road trip where the team finally showed signs of being hampered by its depleted roster.
Further conspiring against them on Tuesday night was a Pittsburgh team fresh off a hard-fought shootout loss to Florida the night before, while the Lightning enjoyed three days off to prepare for the Penguins.
“They were fresh, you could see the way they started,” said Penguins head coach Mike Johnston.
The Lightning raced out to a 4-0 lead on the back of Tyler Johnson. The diminutive forward scored three goals in the first 22:37 of the game. His goals were sandwiched around a Nikita Kucherov tally and the Penguins had a long hill to climb by the halfway mark.
“Overall, you look at the way we came back, and I like from the halfway point of the game on,” said Johnson. “I thought we really did a good job out there considering the circumstances. We were playing a very good hockey team. Just battling back two nights in a row showed a lot of heart.”
It would have been easy for the Penguins to throw in the towel with their lineup featuring six rookies, and goaltender Jeff Zatkoff making his first NHL appearance of the season after Marc-Andre Fleury gave way early in the second period.
Zatkoff would take the loss as the goaltender of record despite giving up only one goal on 16 shots. Fleury let in three of eight while starting in back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Patric Hornqvist scored his 13th of the season just after the midway point of the second period to cut the Tampa lead to three. Hornqvist later added an assist.
Then, in the third period, Chris Kunitz and Kris Letang scored to set up a dramatic finish, but the Penguins were unable to beat Lighting goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy one more time to tie the game. Vasilevskiy was impressive in just his third NHL game, stopping 26 of 29 Penguins shots.
Dominik Uher made his NHL debut for the Penguins, finishing with a minus-1 in 7:17 of ice time. The Penguins played their second consecutive game with only eleven forwards, as Taylor Chorney dressed as an extra defenseman but saw only 4:58 of ice time in limited action.
The three Penguins that were left home in Pittsburgh for the trip, Brandon Sutter, Steve Downie, and Thomas Greiss, should have the results of their mumps tests back on Wednesday.
Zatkoff, Chorney, and Uher were reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League after the game. They can be recalled if necessary after the holiday break.
The Penguins will enjoy the opportunity to rest up and get healthy over the break before they return to action on Saturday, December 27 against the Washington Capitals.
Photo credit: NHL.com
