Thanks to the duo of Tyler Johnson and Jason Garrison, the Tampa Bay Lighting are one win away from their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final.
Johnson scored 53 seconds into overtime Sunday night in Game 5 of Eastern Conference finals to give the Lighting a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins and a 3-2 series lead.
It was Garrison, though, who did the bulk of the work on the OT winner. He fired a shot on net that deflected off Johnson’s backside and past Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
“It must have hit me right in the bum,” Johnson said in a postgame interview with Sportsnet’s Scott Oake.
Fleury struggled in his first start of the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs, allowing all four Lighting goals on 25 shots. Pittsburgh now has surrendered four goals in two consecutive games — both losses — after doing so just twice in its first 14 games of the postseason.
With the Penguins needing a win Tuesday in Game 6 to keep their season alive, it will be intriguing to see if head coach Mike Sullivan sticks with Fleury or goes back to 21-year-old Matt Murray, who’d started 13 consecutive games in net before being pulled midway through Game 4.
Nikita Kucherov, who leads all goal-scorers in these playoffs, scored twice for Tampa Bay on Sunday night and also assisted on Johnson’s game-winner.
Thumbnail photo via Don Wright/USA TODAY Sports Images
