Pittsburgh Penguins vs Tampa Bay Lightning Match Player Stats On Mar 03, 2022

Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin tallied a goal and two assists as the visiting Penguins broke the Tampa Bay Lightning's five-game winning streak with a 5-1 blowout on Thursday.

Malkin set up both scores in Pittsburgh's two-goal first period. He potted a breakaway goal in the third for the Penguins, who have won three straight and are 8-1-0 in their past nine road games.

Pittsburgh's Danton Heinen, Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby each produced a goal and an assist, Brock McGinn found the net and Tristan Jarry stopped 20 of 21 shots.

Crosby's 75th game-winning marker put him into a second-place tie with Malkin in franchise history. Jaromir Jagr is the record holder with 78.

The victory enabled Pittsburgh to win the season series 2-1-0, with the road team prevailing all three times.

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves.

With both teams opening a set of back-to-back games, Malkin wheeled his way through the neutral zone in the first period and passed to Kasperi Kapanen, whose ensuing shot bounced through traffic and to Heinen. The left winger pushed the puck in for his 12th marker just 3:46 in.

Pittsburgh's second goal -- Crosby's 17th -- was a clinic put on by the Penguins' power play.

Swift passing among the top unit ended with the captain potting Guentzel's pass at 6:27 -- putting the Lightning down 2-0 in the opening period for the second straight game.

The visitors completely dominated the frame, managing a 16-5 shot advantage.

A turnover by Kris Letang in Pittsburgh's defensive end wound up on the stick of Bellemare, who slipped in his seventh tally of the season at 6:20 of the second period.

The Penguins regained their two-goal edge when McGinn zipped in on a breakaway, fired a forehander and netted his 11th at 17:08.

After a big scrum late in the middle period, Pittsburgh went on the power play, and Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper was ejected, with assistant Derek Lalonde taking over as acting head coach.

Malkin gave his club breathing room with a breakaway marker, his 10th, at 5:14 of the third, and Guentzel deposited one into an empty net with six minutes remaining.

--Field Level Media