Kessel, Crosby score in Penguins' dominating Game 3 performance

These playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins have been dangerous when Sidney Crosby hasn't scored. Now that Crosby has started to thaw offensively Pittsburgh looks that much more dangerous in their Eastern Conference Final series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Crosby scored a power play goal and Pittsburgh's third line led by Phil Kessel scored two in a dominating 4-2 performance by the Penguins at Amalie Arena.

The Penguins hold a 2-1 series lead over the Lightning with Game 4 Friday in Tampa.

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Pittsburgh outshot the Lightning 48-28. They also had 78 shot attempts to Tampa’s 50.

Before Game 2 of this series, Crosby hadn’t scored a goal since Game 4 of his team’s first-round series against the New York Rangers. Before Wednesday’s Game 3, superstar teammate Evgeni Malkin hadn’t picked up a point since Game 2 against the Washington Capitals in the second-round.

Crosby scored the overtime winner in Game 2, but it was unclear heading into Game 3 that he’d carry the momentum. 

With the Penguins holding a 2-1 lead over the Lightning midway through the third period, Malkin found Crosby on a 4-on-3 power play and Crosby finished the shot past Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Before then, the line of Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Kessel carried the Penguins. At the 19:50 mark of the second period that trio took advantage of a turnover by Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin deep in the Penguins zone. Kessel flew up the ice on a rush and fired a shot on Vasilevskiy. Hagelin put home the rebound to make it 1-0.

Then at the 15:16 mark of the the third period, Kessel fired a shot off a feed from Bonino that beat Vasilevskiy to put the game at 2-0 in favor of Pittsburgh.

Tyler Johnson’s goal at the 5:30 mark of the third and Ondrej Palat’s goal at the 18:16 mark of the third were the only tallies for the Lightning. 

Tampa said they expected a better effort in Game 3 from Game 2 but still struggled offensively and defensively.

In Game 3, Tampa allowed 41 shots on goal and fired just 21 shots on goal. Pittsburgh attempted 69 shots on goal to Tampa’s 44. This entire series, the Lightning haven been outshot 124-69 by Pittsburgh in three games.

Also, some of the Lightning’s top players have gone cold. Forward Nikita Kucherov had two assists in this game – his first points of the series. He hasn’t scored a goal after coming into the Eastern Conference Final with nine goals in 10 games. Johnson’s goal was his first this series.

Tampa coach Jon Cooper started Drouin on the fourth line in the third period of Game 3 after the costly turnover. Up until that point, Drouin had produced this series with two goals but such a play can hurt a young player's confidence.  

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper