Malkin Scores Twice, Koivunen 1st NHL Goal In 4-3 Victory Against Lightning

 

The Penguins continued their winning momentum on Thursday night, battling past the Tampa Bay Lightning to secure a thrilling 4-3 victory and extend their winning streak to two games. The Penguins established early dominance, surging to a 3-0 lead thanks to a powerful offensive effort that featured goals from both veteran star Evgeni Malkin and new talent. Ville Koivunen netted his first career NHL goal, a crucial power-play marker, which was later joined by another power-play tally from Ben Kindel. Despite watching the Lightning erase their three-goal advantage, the Penguins refused to quit. Tristan Jarry was remarkable, turning aside 37 shots and standing unwavering in the net; he held the line through the final minutes. It was fitting that Malkin played the hero, scoring his second goal in the waning minutes to finalize the hard-fought win. The loss gave the Lightning their second straight regulation defeat in over a month, a clear sign of the Penguins' successful road performance.

Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup:

Hayes - Crosby - Rust

Novak - Malkin - Mantha

McGroarty - Kindel - Koivunen

Imama - Lizotte - Dewar

Wotherspoon - Karlsson

Shea - Letang

Graves - Clifton

Jarry

Silovs

Tampa Bay Lightning Lineup:

Hagel - Cirelli - Kucherov

Guentzel - Paul - Bjorkstrand

Girgensons - Gourde - Holmberg

Douglas - James - Goncalves

Moser - Raddysh

D'Astous - Lilleberg

Carlie - Crozier

Johansson

Halverson

Ville Koivunen put home his first NHL career goal when he fired a wrister from the high slot outside the left circle on the power play at 13:48 of the first period to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead after he took a pass from Kris Letang, who received the puck from Tommy Novak.

Evgeni Malkin extended Pittsburgh's lead to 2-0 at 12:08 in the middle frame, picking up his seventh goal of the season. After getting control of the loose puck on an errant pass by Brandon Hagel in the Penguins' zone, Malkin skated down through the neutral zone and into Tampa Bay's zone, beating Jonas Johansson on a breakaway. Not long after the second Penguins' goal, Ben Kindel made it 3-0 with a power-play goal when he redirected a shot from Erik Karlsson with 10:11 on the clock. This was Kindel's seventh goal of the season and his second goal in his past three games. With 1:14 left to play in the second, Nikita Kucherov scored to prevent the Lightning from getting shutout by Tristan Jarry when Darren Raddysh provided the set-up pass, and Kucherov beat Jarry from the low slot on a chip-in.

In the third, Brandon Hagel scored twice to tie it up 3-3. The first goal of the two came early in the final period at 18:43 right off the face-off when Raddysh, who was along the blue line, sent the puck to Kucherov, who was along the right boards. Hagel got hold of the puck after Kucherov sent it across, the puck bounced off the boards, and Hagel moved up to the left circle to beat Jarry on the stick side with a wrist shot. The second goal by Hagel came at 8:16 when the puck deflected off Nick Paul's skate to his stick in front of the net, and he scored on a snap shot in the low slot. Hagel has 10 goals in his past seven games. Malkin struck again to break the tie 4-3 at 2:43 off a feed from Novak, putting a one-timer past Johansson from the low slot for his eighth goal of the season. With 55 seconds left to play, it appeared Kucherov tied the game 4-4 from the right circle on a one-timer. Still, after a video review initiated by the NHL Situation Room, it was determined that Hagel made a hand pass to start the scoring sequence.

Ville Koivunen on his first NHL goal, the emotion when he scored, and confidence moving forward: "It felt really good. Been waiting a pretty long time now. So yeah, it was a pretty nice moment. ...Relief and happiness both, I've been waiting for that goal a long time, so that felt good." - "Well, probably I can score now on more of those scoring chances when I have them, so I think it gives confidence when I have chances to score. I hope so, though."

Notes:

- The Penguins are 14-7-5, 4-1-1 in their past six games.

- Evgeni Malkin had a three-point night, recording two goals and an assist. ...This was Malkin's seventh career go-ahead goal in the final five minutes of regulation, matching both Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby for the most in team history. He also has tied Bryan Trottier for the 10th most assists with a single franchise (853).

- This was Ville Koivunen's 24th game, where he scored his first NHL goal.

- Sidney Crosby was 16-for-24 on face-off draws.

- Nikita Kucherov picked up both a goal and an assist.

- The Tampa Bay Lightning are 16-9-2.

- Jonas Johansson made a total of 27 saves for Tampa Bay.