USA TODAY International Edition
Sullivan’s challenge shifts momentum
After Lightning goal erased, Penguins surge for victory that forces Game 7
Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan’s decision to switch goalies, as important as it seems, might not have been as critical to the outcome of Game 6 as his decision to challenge an apparent Tampa Bay Lightning goal in the first period.
The Penguins benefited from the winning challenge and two strong defensive periods to post a 5- 2 win that forces a Game 7 Thursday in Pittsburgh to decide the winner of the Eastern Conference finals.
Game 6 changed dramatically at 5: 12 of the first period when the Lightning thought Jonathan Drouin had scored to give them a 1- 0 lead.
Tampa Bay players celebrated. The building was alive. Moments before, Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy had made a big save. Now Tampa Bay had scored the first goal, which is huge in potential clinching games. You could feel momentum building. Not so fast, Sullivan said. He used his coach’s challenge to ask replay officials whether the play had started with an offside entry into the zone.
Sure enough, replays showed Drouin, the goal scorer, had actually been offside when Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman brought the puck into the offensive zone.
The goal was erased. Momentum was killed.
Lifted by the change of fortune, the Penguins took charge of the game. By the end of 40 minutes, they had outshot the Lightning 26- 11 and held a 3- 0 lead on goals by Phil Kessel, Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby.
Kessel had batted a puck off the ice past Vasilevskiy at 18: 46 of the first period on a five- on- three power play to give Pittsburgh a 1- 0 lead. Letang had scored at 7: 40 of the second period by timing his shot to be released just as traffic impaired Vasilevskiy’s ability to see the puck.
Superstars are expected to rise up in important games, and Crosby did that in Game 6. His goal with 26 seconds left in the second period was the one that seemed to make it almost official that the series was going to a Game 7.
On the play, Crosby beat Ondrej Palat to the puck and then went around Tampa Bay’s top defenders, Hedman and Anton Stralman, to beat Vasilevskiy on a breakaway.
That turned out to be crucial when the Lightning, known for their resiliency this season, stormed back in the third period on two goals by gritty checking-line center Brian Boyle. The first deflected off the stick of Kessel.
Sullivan had chosen to put rookie goalie Matt Murray back in the net for Game 6 after going with veteran Marc- Andre Fleury in Game 5.
Murray wasn’t spectacular in Game 6, but he was strong in the third period when the Lightning players were pressing. Plus, the Penguins responded to his composure and poise. Fleury’s style is more kinetic. Murray seems to have the same demeanor no matter what is happening on the ice.
Pittsburgh fourth- liner Bryan Rust scored on a breakaway to ice the game at 17: 52 of the third period. Nick Bonino added an empty- netter.