When Dwayne Roloson started for the Lightning \u00a0in Game 7 of last year’s quarterfinals in Pittsburgh, he stopped all 36 shots to complete Tampa Bay’s comeback from a 3-1 series deficit.<\/p>\n
After this season, Roloson may never want to play against Pittsburgh again, especially if number 71 is on the ice.<\/p>\n
Evgeni Malkin tallied his ninth career hat trick, Jordan Staal added two goals, and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 34 of 35 shots as the Penguins destroyed the Lightning 8-1, Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Although the score may have failed to show how well Tampa Bay played for most of the game. \u00a0In the first period, Tampa Bay outshot Pittsburgh 11-9 and had multiple chances to score. \u00a0Fleury stopped Trevor Smith on a partial breakaway midway through the first, then stopped Nate Thompson with a rolling save as the final seconds died off in the opening period.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Penguins seemed to capitalize on every chance, scoring three times in the first period, including two goals 50 seconds apart. \u00a0Chris Kunitz got on the board with his 17th goal of the season. \u00a0Malkin fed Kunitz from behind the Tampa Bay net and Kunitz’s shot from the left circle, bounced off of Victor Hedman’s leg and into the net.<\/p>\n
As the first goal was still being announced, Matt Cooke found a loose puck in front and fired a shot off the crossbar and in the net for a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay’s luck didn’t get any better.<\/p>\n
With the Lightning on the power play, Hedman got tangled up with the linesman which gave Jordan Staal a breakaway and a shorthanded goal. \u00a0Up 3-0 after one, the Penguins were just getting started.<\/p>\n
Roloson may have surrendered 8 goals, but his biggest mistake may have been taking a few shots at the NHL’s best current forward. \u00a0After stopping Malkin in front, Roloson threw a punch towards the points leader, who, at that point in the game, only had an assist.<\/p>\n
Malkin took a retaliatory penalty, then retaliated by scoring on a one-timer from a nearly impossible angle minutes later. \u00a0As the crowd rose to their feet in celebration, Malkin kept his sights on the 42 year old Roloson.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay got a power play goal from Teddy Purcell but otherwise, failed to solve Marc-Andre Fleury who stopped Martin St. Louis on a breakaway in the second period.<\/p>\n
Malkin continued to breakaway from Steven Stamkos for the points lead in the third period. Just five minutes into the third, Malkin took the puck from his own end, skated through all five Lightning players, and slammed the puck into the net for his second goal of the game. \u00a0The goal, scored by a 25 year old, brought nostalgia to the 18,596 fans at Consol Energy Center, reminding them of former Penguin Legend, Mario Lemieux.<\/p>\n
Eight minutes later, Malkin scored on the power play to notch his third hat trick of the season and second natural hat trick against the Tampa Bay Lightning. \u00a0James Neal, who finished with 3 assists, had his shot stopped in front of the net. \u00a0As Eric Brewer attempted to clear the puck, Malkin lifted Brewer’s stick and jammed in the rebound. \u00a0Pascal Dupuis scored to give the Penguins their eighth and final goal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of Yahoo!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Dwayne Roloson started for the Lightning \u00a0in Game 7 of last year’s quarterfinals in Pittsburgh, he stopped all 36 shots to complete Tampa Bay’s comeback from a 3-1 series deficit. After this season, Roloson may never want to play against Pittsburgh again, especially if number 71 is on the ice. Evgeni Malkin tallied his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional"],"yoast_head":"\n