TAMPA, Fla. — The Penguins lost a playoff game and a valuable defenseman Friday night and left Amalie Arena with a potential dreaded goaltender controversy. Other than that, they had a wonderful spring evening on the shore of Tampa Bay.
No one should have expected Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final to be easy. The Tampa Bay Lighting is too good of team to roll over and die. Maybe the Penguins were better in the third period of a Game 1 loss, won Game 2 in overtime and overwhelmed the Lightning in Game 3. The Tampa Bay club knows how to counterpunch.