Pittsburgh (1-1) at Tampa Bay (1-1)
When: Wednesday, May 18th 2016
Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL
Time: 8:05 ET | TV: NBC Sports
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The Pittsburgh Penguins look to take back home-ice advantage when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Finals series. Captain Sidney Crosby scored his first ever playoff overtime goal on Monday just 40 seconds into extra time to even the best-of-seven series up a one a piece. Crosby hopes to build off his first goal in nine games and fellow center Evgeni Malkin has gone without a point for the last six contests. Coach Mike Sullivan even put Crosby and Malkin together for a few shifts in Game 2 in hopes of sparking one or both of them. Phil Kessel continues to produce with a team-high 14 points after tying Patric Hornqvist for the goal-scoring lead with his sixth on Monday. Goalie Matt Murray has allowed five goals on 41 shots in the series, leading to speculation that veteran Marc-Andre Fleury may replace him for Game 3.
The Lightning are probably happy they got at least a split in Pittsburgh as they were outshot 76-41 in the two games. Anton Stralman (broken fibula) returned to the lineup Monday for the first time in more than seven weeks and scored a goal in the first period while captain Steven Stamkos (blood clot) is still waiting to be cleared to play. The Lightning hope to get right wing Ryan Callahan back after he missed Game 2 with the flu and was replaced by Jonathan Marchessault. Jonathan Drouin scored a goal in each of the first two contests of the series and boasts 11 points in the playoffs after recording 10 in the regular season. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy has stopped 63-of-67 shots since coming on for Bishop in the first period of Game 1.
Pittsburgh continues to dominate on the offensive end and eventually it’s going to lead to a blowout win. I feel confident that the Penguins will get at least one of these two in Tampa this week.
Pick: Penguins -125
