That extra effort
PITTSBURGH — Maybe it was a couple of agitating former teammates. Maybe it was their place in the standings. Maybe it was the booing fans.
Something set off the Pittsburgh Penguins and, for one of the few times in the last two months, they looked like the team that was two games away from winning the Stanley Cup last spring.
Evgeni Malkin finished a frantic Pittsburgh rally with 15.5 seconds left in overtime by scoring his second goal and the Penguins, looking lifeless while trailing by three goals early in the third, surged to beat Tampa Bay 4-3 on Wednesday night.
Malkin began the comeback by scoring his first goal not long after being checked into a corner by former teammate Mark Recchi early in the third. Malkin later set up Petr Sykora's tying power-play goal with 3:29 remaining in regulation — one created by former Penguins forward Gary Roberts' roughing penalty on Matt Cooke — after Sykora assisted on Mark Eaton's goal.
"I'm mad because we're losing," Malkin said after being asked what got him going.
The Penguins, three points below the Eastern Conference's playoff cutoff coming in, were in danger of losing their fourth in a row until NHL points leader Malkin scored his 23rd and 24th goals. Tampa Bay led 3-0 in rookie goalie Mike McKenna's first career start before dropping its fourth in a row.
"You always look back at seasons, and turning points, and hopefully this is one for us," captain Sidney Crosby said. "It was a big character builder for everyone."
It's been a big week for Pittsburgh comebacks not only in Tampa — the Steelers' 27-23 win against Arizona in the Super Bowl there on Sunday night — but against Tampa. Coincidentally, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger watched from Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux's private box and kicker Jeff Reed also attended.
Pittsburgh, 5-11-1 in its previous 17 games, did nothing against McKenna in the first two periods as Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier each had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay. Former Pittsburgh forward Ryan Malone also scored."They were playing very well, they gave us nothing, it was hard to play out there," Sykora said. "Geno got us going and we had a chance to come back. I felt we got so much life on Geno's first goal."Malkin appeared agitated and was seen yelling toward Tampa Bay's bench after being checked by Recchi behind the Lightning net early in the third. From then on, Pittsburgh was in control while outshooting the Lightning 17-5 over the final period and overtime. Pittsburgh had five of the seven shots in overtime."We talked after the second period and said, 'Let's go, guys, we have to shoot the puck," Malkin said.Malkin did more than that — his big hit caused defenseman Andrej Meszaros to miss the third period and overtime because of apparent arm injury.On the game winner, Jordan Staal briefly controlled the puck along the goal line, somehow regained it after pulling it away from two Tampa Bay defenders and passed in front to Malkin, who scored on a wrist shot before being pulled to his knees.Malkin celebrated by throwing his body against the glass, and his teammates piled on top of him to celebrate what arguably was their best comeback victory of the season.Roberts, part of Pittsburgh's playoff run last season, was angry at a self-described "dumb penalty" that he said Cooke didn't deserve to draw."I mean, we're jostling all the way up the ice and obviously he's famous for diving and never really playing with any honor," Roberts said.
