Sunday 17 January 2016

NHL - Pittsburgh Penguins @ Tampa Bay Lightning 4-5 OT - Friday, January 15, 2016



Vladislav Namestnikov completed his first NHL hat trick at 2:11 of overtime to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 5-4 win against the Penguins at Amalie Arena. Valtteri Filppula and Anton Stralman scored for the Lightning, who have won four straight games. Chris Kunitz, Kris Letang, Patrick Hornqvist and Trevor Daley scored for the Penguins, who were 1-1-2 on a four-game road trip.
Namestnikov's overtime goal went off Hornqvist's stick and got past Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Video review determined the Lightning were not offside during the sequence. Namestnikov has been on a hot streak since he was put on a line with Ondrej Palat and Steven Stamkos in third period against the Edmonton Oilers on Jan. 8. Namestnikov has three goals and five assists in the past four games.
Kunitz and Daley scored third-period goals to give the Penguins a 4-3 lead. Kunitz scored a go-ahead goal with 6:12 remaining with a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy high at the far post.
Anton Stralman tied the game at 4-4 with 4:39 left when he scored on a highlight-worthy backhand spin move that caught Fleury by surprise. Namestnikov scored his first goal 1:51 into the first period. Steven Stamkos found him on the right side, and Namestnikov, in his 91st NHL game, sent a high wrist shot past Fleury at the near post for a 1-0 lead.
Pittsburgh tied the game at 1-1 on Letang's sixth goal of the season at 10:37. He took the puck off the faceoff and cut into the slot, where he scored on Vasilevskiy after the puck bounced off the outside of his pad. The Lightning scored on a 5-on-3 to take a 2-1 lead 8:12 into the second period. Stamkos faked a shot from the point and passed to Tyler Johnson in the slot, where he found Filppula at the open end of the net.
Namestnikov's second goal came on a power play at 10:47 of the second period, a redirection of a slap shot by Victor Hedman. Hornqvist made it 3-2 with a power-play goal at 14:23, and then Daley tied it 3-3 10:13 into the third period.
Vasilevskiy made 36 saves for the Lightning in place of usual starter Ben Bishop.


Pens Quotes
Sidney Crosby: "We have to take advantage of the chances we get. We obviously don't want to have two 5-on-3s in the same game; it's tough to dig yourself out of that. I thought we found a way to gather ourselves a bit and get a point out of it, but we have to start collecting some wins."
Kris Letang: "I think we did a great job of coming back. It was back and forth, a lot of penalties, the momentum was going up and down."
Mike Sullivan: "We have to find a way to stay out of the penalty box. We can't give a team that has that much firepower extended 5-on-3s like that and back-to-back kills. The unfortunate part for us was our penalty killers were in the penalty box (Matt Cullen and Eric Fehr), and so it limits our options on the bench in those circumstances."
Marc-Andre Fleury: "We put ourselves in trouble a little bit with penalties, but everybody kept playing hard. It was nice to get back into the game and get the lead. I was not happy to let that fourth one go in, but, like I said, at least it's a point. But we have to start winning games."

The following day the Anaheim Ducks acquired David Perron and defenseman Adam Clendening in a trade for Carl Hagelin. Perron, in his ninth NHL season and second with Pittsburgh, has four goals and 12 assists this season. He has 133 goals and 179 assists in his NHL career, including a high of 28 goals with the Edmonton Oilers in 2013-14.
"He should be motivated," Ducks general manager Bob Murray said. "He needed a change of scenery, and we all know he can get hot. We need someone to get hot."
The Ducks are 30th in the NHL averaging 1.95 goals per game. Clendening, in his first season with the Penguins after playing 21 games with the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks last season, had one assist and a plus-3 rating in nine games with Pittsburgh. He'll help a Ducks defense hit hard by the losses of Cam Fowler and Simon Despres. Fowler, who is recovering from a knee injury, skated Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times, and Despres was loaned to San Diego of the American Hockey League on a conditioning assignment as he works his way back from a concussion. Hagelin, who was traded by the New York Rangers to the Ducks on June 27 for Emerson Etem and a second-round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, had four goals and eight assists in 43 games with Anaheim. He scored 58 regular-season goals in his four seasons with the Rangers and 12 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, including a series-clinching overtime goal against Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference First Round last season. He has a career plus-47 rating. Etem was traded by the Rangers to the Canucks on Jan. 8.
"He has a great hockey sense and can play with anyone," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "He will help make us a better team."
Patric Hornqvist, who trains with Hagelin during the summer, said he looks forward to welcoming his new teammate.
"He's a good friend. I think he'll fit in really well," Hornqvist said.
The Penguins and Ducks are each two points out of a wild-card spot in their respective conferences entering play Saturday.

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