NHL PLAYOFFS
LIGHTNING 4, PENGUINS 3
TAMPA, Fla. -- Ninety minutes before the opening faceoff, Jon Cooper talked about what the Tampa Bay Lightning needed to do to get back on track in the Eastern Conference finals.
"We've got to play better," the coach said. "That's it."
Ryan Callahan provided an early spark, Andrei Vasilevskiy made two big saves in the closing minutes to avoid a total third-period collapse, and the resilient Lightning held on Friday night for a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Callahan tipped a shot past goalie Matt Murray just 17 seconds into the game. Andrej Sustr, Jonathan Drouin and Tyler Johnson also scored and the Lightning rebounded after being badly outplayed in the previous two games to even the series 2-2 heading back to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Sunday.
"The one thing on the bench was, it doesn't matter how you get there," Cooper said after the Penguins scored three times in 12 minutes to turn a potential rout into a nail-biter.
"So whether you're up 4-0 and it becomes 4-3, or you're down 3-0 and it becomes 4-3, it doesn't matter. You're still winning, so you've got to play like that," the coach added. "Ultimately, the goal is to win the hockey game, and when you wake up in the morning, it's not how they came back and made it a game. Ultimately, the series is 2-2."
Vasilevskiy had a 4-0 lead entering the third period, but the Penguins didn't give up. Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin scored to give Pittsburgh hope, and Chris Kunitz's power-play goal trimmed the deficit to one with a little less than 7 minutes remaining.
Tampa Bay was outshot 16-7 over the final 20 minutes after dominating the first two periods. Malkin and Jason Schultz tested Vasilevskiy in the final 2:10, but Vasilevskiy stopped both efforts to tie the score.
The 21-year-old goaltender, filling in for injured Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop, finished with 35 saves in his fourth career playoff start.
Marc-Andre Fleury replaced Murray in goal for the Penguins at the start of the third, and Kessel's team-leading eighth goal began a rally that just fell short.
Sports on 05/21/2016