Tampa Bay’s Jason Garrison on Sunday saw his shot deflect off a teammate’s back and into the net in the first minute of overtime to give the Lightning a 4-3 win over Pittsburgh and a 3-2 lead in their NHL Eastern Conference finals series.
A year after falling to Chicago in the Stanley Cup finals, Tampa Bay can head back to the championship round with a win in Game 6 at home today.
Tyler Johnson, who received stitches and lost teeth when hit in the face by the puck during the warmup before Game 4, was again in the firing line of Garrison’s game-winning shot 53 seconds into overtime.
Photo: AP
“I was just battling in front,” Johnson said. “I saw Garry starting to shoot it, thought he was going for my head again, so I turned around.”
The goal was credited to Johnson for his seventh goal of the playoffs. The Lightning are 12-1 in the past 13 post-season games in which Johnson has scored.
Tampa Bay came from 2-0 down and still trailed 3-2 in the third period, but pulled off a vital road victory.
Nikita Kucherov scored twice to boost his post-season total to an NHL-best 11 — including a wraparound that beat Marc-Andre Fleury and tied the game 3-3 with just 3 minutes, 16 seconds left in regulation. Alex Killorn picked up his fifth of the playoffs as the Lightning handed the Penguins consecutive losses for the first time since January.
Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 31 shots, while Fleury, who returned to the lineup for the first time in more than seven weeks after a concussion and the good form of his rookie replacement Matt Murray, finished with 21 saves, but could not protect leads of 2-0 and 3-2.
“It was not the best I have felt in a game,” Fleury said after his 100th playoff game. “Still, I have been practicing a lot, so I should have been better.”
Brian Dumoulin, Chris Kunitz and Patric Hornqvist scored for the Penguins, who appeared to be in firm control at certain points, but now find themselves on the brink of elimination.
The Penguins blocked 22 shots before they even made it to the goal crease and continued their series-long dominance in creating pressure at the other end.
Dumoulin’s first goal in 17 months in the final second of the first period put Pittsburgh in front. Hornqvist’s tap-in off Carl Hagelin’s feed made it 2-0 just 1 minute, 30 seconds into the second.
Killorn drew Tampa Bay within a goal 13 minutes, 15 seconds into the second period on a wrist shot from the left circle that went in and out of the goal so quickly play continued for a few seconds before referees pointed to the red goal light.
Kucherov tied it 1 minute, 10 seconds later on an easy one-timer. Kunitz’s rebound with 1 minute, 30 seconds left in the second gave the Penguins the lead again.
Tampa Bay’s Ryan Callahan saw a shot ring off the far post and along the goal line — but not across it — with 3 minutes, 50 seconds remaining in what appeared to have been the visitors’ last chance. However, barely 30 seconds later, Kucherov was flying behind the Pittsburgh net to tie it.
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