Sidney Crosby on Monday scored his first goal in nine games 40 seconds into overtime as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in Game Two of the Eastern Conference finals to even the series.
The Penguins, who squandered a two-goal lead before getting the winner in overtime, today head to Tampa for Game Three in the best-of-seven series.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan shook up his lines late in the game to try to get his stars going, and Crosby came through by putting a shot under the crossbar to win it.
Photo: Don Wright-USA TODAY
Pittsburgh pressed from the start of the extra period, and Crosby emerged with his first overtime goal in 113 playoff games.
Matt Murray won the battle of 21-year-old backup goaltenders, making 19 saves and not allowing a goal after giving up two in a span of 2 minutes, 33 seconds in the first period.
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was exceptional, making 38 saves, but it was not good enough.
Pittsburgh took all three of the shots in overtime.
The Penguins got off to exactly the start they wanted in what could be viewed as a must-win game, getting goals from Matt Cullen and Phil Kessel less than 10 minutes in.
However, with Vasilevskiy turning aside several more excellent scoring chances — including Bryan Rust on a rush off the opening faceoff — the Lightning came back after killing off Alex Killorn’s holding penalty at 13 minutes, 23 seconds.
Defenseman Anton Stralman, back in the lineup for the first time since breaking his left leg on March 25, got the comeback started by gathering a bouncing puck and lifting it under the crossbar at 16 minutes, 37 seconds.
Stralman needed only a moment to get open, and that occurred when Crosby and Conor Sheary bumped into each other just as Crosby was skating toward Stralman, who scored his fifth goal in four games against Pittsburgh this season.
Jonathan Drouin tied it 2 minutes, 33 seconds later, taking J.T. Brown’s pass at mid-ice, skating to the top of the left circle for a wrist shot and beating Murray inside the far post.
Drouin, in the lineup because of Steven Stamkos’ injury, has 11 points in 12 playoff games after getting 10 in 21 regular-season games.
Neither team scored in the second, when Murray kept the score tied with an excellent save on Killorn late in the period.
Cullen, who is having an excellent post-season for Pittsburgh at age 39, scored his fourth of the playoffs at 4 minutes, 32 seconds of the first, off a rebound of an Eric Fehr shot.
Kessel scored his 19th goal in 35 playoff games — and sixth of these playoffs — about five minutes later after Carl Hagelin’s shot rebounded to Nick Bonino, whose pass deflected off Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr’s skate directly to Kessel.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB