Mike Sullivan said that he didn't "think the score was an indication of how close the game was."
The scoreboard read 5-1 in the Lightning's favor on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena, the Penguins' first regulation loss of the season.
The game was tightly-contested and hard-fought for much of the 60 minutes, but it took just a few seconds for the momentum to swing in the Lightning's direction just enough to put the game out of reach for the Penguins.
The Lightning came into the game on a three-game losing streak, including a tough 5-1 loss to Buffalo on Monday night. As a result, Sullivan said that they expected the Lightning "would push from the drop of the puck," and push they did.
The Penguins trailed 1-0 at the midway point of the second period, after Brayden Point got the game's first goal 31 seconds into the middle frame.
It was at that midway point that the Penguins had their best shift of the game, and it came from the fourth line of Dominik Simon, Brian Boyle, and Sam Lafferty. The Penguins had just about a minute and 15 seconds of uninterrupted time in the offensive zone, and the fourth line was on the ice for most of it:
"We had the puck, we had the momentum," Teddy Blueger said of the Penguins' play at that point of the second period. "We pretty much did everything but score in that sequence."
Just as soon as that line's shift ended, the Lightning took control of the game in a matter of seconds The Lightning regained possession after this failed attempted pass from Brian Dumoulin, leading to Ondrej Palat wide open in the slot with time to take a shot and beat Jarry glove-side:
When the puck dropped next, the Penguins lost the faceoff. Steven Stamkos set up Ryan McDonagh, who tied the game with a slapshot from the top of the left circle just 10 seconds after Palat's goal:
"That was definitely a tough turn," Jason Zucker said. "Especially when we thought we were playing pretty well there."
Sullivan called timeout after the McDonagh goal, and Blueger said that the message was "calm down, get back to playing our game."
The Penguins responded well after those two quick goals, and controlled the majority of the shot attempts and chances for the remainder of the period, as the game flow chart illustrates, with the two nearly-overlapping blue circles right in the middle representing those two goals:
"We did a pretty good job during the second half of the second period, we just couldn't get a goal," Blueger said.
The 3-0 deficit was too deep of a hole for the Penguins to climb out of. It wasn't going to happen, not with Andrei Vasilevskiy in net.
"We responded hard," John Marino said. "We controlled the majority of the second period. But the chances we gave up are just too much, and they capitalize on those chances. Once they do, it's hard to come back from that."
Zucker broke Vasilevskiy's shutout late in the third on the power play, but two empty-net goals from Tampa put the game away.
Sullivan acknowledged the lapses that led to the Lightning being able to take control of the game, calling it "a game of mistakes." But with so many players competing for roster spots as the Penguins start to get healthy again, Sullivan called those mistakes "mistakes of enthusiasm."
"We can learn from those, and we can live with those, we'll move by them, we'll try to learn from them," he said.
While a win obviously would have been ideal, Sullivan still came away from this game encouraged by what he saw from this group, still down so many of its star players.
"There was a lot of the game that I liked," Sullivan said. "We don't want to lose, we end up on the wrong side of the score. That's an important aspect. It's about results, but we can't always control that. We can control the process, we can we can control our compete level, we can control our attitude. And all of those things, I can't say enough about this group."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins thought they scored in the first period, with Brock McGinn tapping in a rebound chance. The goal was quickly waived off for coming just after the officials blew the whistle:
The explanation Sullivan received from the referee was that he had lost sight of the puck.
"He was on the backside of the goaltender," Sullivan explained. "He didn't see it, it was a quick whistle. You know, I was appreciative of his honesty. That's hockey, there's a human element sometimes to it."
• This was Sam Lafferty's best game of the season. Just over four minutes into the game, Lafferty laid a heavy hit on McDonagh behind the net. McDonagh took exception to the hit, and both players got hit with roughing calls, with McDonagh's being a double minor, putting the Penguins on the power play:
Shortly after Lafferty was freed from the box, he dropped the gloves with Corey Perry:
Getting Perry and McDonagh in the box was already one of the biggest contributions Lafferty has made in a game this season. But beyond that, he had a solid overall game. He was on that line with the extended shift in the second period that had a number of chances, and he was tied for the team-lead in the game with five hits.
"Sam made an impact on the game," Sullivan said. "You know, his physicality was evident early on. Sam gets in on the forecheck, he gets a big hit and it kind of got our guys into the hockey game a little bit. That's the type of impact that Sam can have. He can really skate and get into the forecheck. He's a big, strong kid, he's doing some penalty-killing for us, he's getting better in that aspect of the game. For me, those are the ways Sam can have a positive impact on the game and I thought he did a did a decent job tonight."
• Tristan Jarry made 26 saves on 29 shots in the loss.
• Marino led in shots on goal, with five.
• Attendance was slightly higher as it was on Saturday, with 15,732 tickets solid for this game, or 85.8 percent capacity.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Ondrej Palat, Lightning
2. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Lightning
3. Mikhail Sergachev, Lightning
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Sidney Crosby is still recovering from offseason wrist surgery, and no target date has been set for his return. He's resumed practicing with the team.
• Evgeni Malkin is expected to miss the first two months of the season while recovering from his knee surgery. He has been skating with Ty Hennes.
• Bryan Rust was injured in the Penguins' second game of the season and is considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He has resumed skating with Hennes.
• Jeff Carter tested positive for COVID-19 and remains in COVID protocol. He is asymptomatic, and Sullivan said he could come out of protocol by the end of the week.
• Kris Letang tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday and is in COVID protocol. He is symptomatic.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel - Evan Rodrigues - Kasperi Kapanen
Jason Zucker - Drew O'Connor - Danton Heinen
Zach Aston-Reese - Teddy Blueger - Brock McGinn
Sam Lafferty - Brian Boyle - Dominik Simon
Brian Dumoulin - John Marino
Marcus Pettersson - Chad Ruhwedel
Mike Matheson - Mark Friedman
And for Jon Cooper's Lightning:
Alex Killorn - Brayden Point - Anthony Cirelli
Ondrej Palat - Steven Stamkos - Mathieu Joseph
Pat Maroon - Ross Colton - Corey Perry
Taylor Raddysh - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Alex Barre-Boulet
Victor Hedman - Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev - Andrej Sustr
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will practice at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday, then host the Flames on Thursday at 7 p.m.
THE CONTENT
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