Nikita Kucherov played a nasty trick on the Penguins with a pair of goals in a 5-2 victory for the Tampa Bay Lightning which for the moment prevents the Pittsburgh team from getting past the Montreal Canadiens.
The Penguins have amassed 44 points in the standings in 45 games so far this season. This is the same number of points as that of the Habs, who however played three games less. Martin St-Louis’ men thus have a definite advantage over their rivals, but they will have to stay the course in this tight race in the Eastern Association.
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Sunday at PPG Paints Arena, the local favorites missed a great opportunity, especially since everything was going pretty well before the final minutes of the third period. Kevin Hayes had created the tie at the start of the period on the power play.
However, it was this moment that Nikita Kucherov chose to score his second goal of the match and his 20th of the season. The Russian stole the puck from Noel Acciari, who was guilty of a turnover, before tucking it under the right arm of goalkeeper Tristan Jarry.
Kucherov performs a robbery before outwitting Jarry –
Acciari’s frustration was easily visible as he smashed his stick against the horizontal bar following the error. Anthony Cirelli and Nick Paul confirmed the victory for the visitors by both hitting the target into an empty net.
Brandon Hagel was the other scorer for the Lightning. The forward who will defend Canada’s colors at the 4 Nations Showdown raced up the ice to score a superb goal during the middle period.
Quite a rise from Brandon Hagel! –
The Penguins have only recorded one victory in their last seven outings.
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