The Tampa Bay Lightning have taken Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals with 3-1 victory over the Pittsburg Penguins on Friday night.
The Lightning not only continued their winning ways without Steven Stamkos and Anton Stralman, they lost Ben Bishop to a gruesome leg injury 12:25 into game that potentially could end Bishop’s season.
Tampa Bay capitalized off the rush and on the power play in jumping out to a 3-0 lead on goals from Alex Killorn (4), Ondrej Palat (3, PPG) and Jonathan Drouin (2).
Pittsburgh cut the Lightning’s lead to 3-1 on a power play goal from Patric Hornqvist (6) with 55 seconds left in the second period but the Penguins would only muster one goal past Lightning backup Andrei Vasilevskiy who turned aside 24 of 25 shots.
Pittsburgh out-shot Tampa Bay 34-20.
Source: Hoffmann group remains confident of finalizing purchase of Penguins this month