TAMPA, Fla. _ A week after one of the most embarrassing losses in recent franchise history, the Penguins found themselves in a similar situation.
On the road, in the second leg of a back-to-back, facing a quality opponent. The end result was the same, but the effort much more encouraging.
The Penguins lost to Tampa Bay, 5-4, Thursday night, as they fell behind by two goals in the second period and _ while they cut the lead to one on a multiple occasions _ couldn't find the tying score.
It was miles better than the 10-1 drubbing they took in Chicago last week, but both games count for zero points in the standings.
Antti Niemi made his second start as a Penguin. It went better than his first, the Chicago loses from which he pulled midway through the first period. Against the Lightning, Niemi made a number of acrobatic saves, but his final numbers were just 29 saves on 34 shots.
Niemi was the victim of some bad luck on the Penguins' first goal. Tampa Bay defenseman Slater Koekkoek's point shot took a tough deflection off Tom Kuhnhackl's stick on its way to the net, leaving Niemi scrambling and unsure where the puck was. It ended up going between his legs for Koekkoek's first career goal, which put the Lightning up 1-0 at 6:07 of the first period.
Chris Kunitz earned an assist on Koekkoek's goal, his first point against the Penguins since leaving them in free agency this offseason.
The Penguins leveled the score later in the period on Jake Guentzel's second goal of the season. Just seconds after a Penguins power play expired, Guentzel took a pass from Kris Letang in front of the net and deftly deflected it past Andrei Vasilevskiy for the score.
The tie nearly lasted until the first intermission, but the Lightning just barely beat the buzzer to reclaim the lead. Victor Hedman's shot from the point on the power play beat Niemi and crossed the goal line with 0.1 seconds left on the clock. Following a review, the Lightning went to the dressing room with a 2-1 lead.
The goal snapped a streak of 18 consecutive kills for the Penguins' penalty-kill unit, which stretched back to the season opener against St. Louis.
Tampa Bay wasn't done scoring with the man advantage, either. A series of tic-tac-toe passes by the Lightning early in the second ended Steven Stamkos wide open at the left circle, and Stamkos didn't miss, beating Niemi to claim a 3-1 lead.
The Lightning finished the night 2-for-4 on the power play.
The Penguins cut the lead in half midway through the second when Chad Ruhwedel launched a picture-perfect stretch pass to Conor Sheary for a breakaway, and Sheary beat Vasilevskiy's blocker to make the score 3-2 at 8:58 of the second.
That one-goal deficit lasted less than a minute, though, as Nikita Kucherov fired an absolute snipe past Niemi's glove at 9:49 of the second period to re-establish the Lightning lead at 4-2.
Bryan Rust bought the Penguins back to within a goal with his first score of the season on the power play at 14:24 of the second, but once again the Lightning quickly answered back to give themselves a cushion. It was Koekkoek once again late in the second, scoring his second career goal on a scramble in front of the net to make the score 5-3 at 17:55 of the second period.
Matt Hunwick got his first goal as a Penguin midway through the third period to once again make it a one-goal game, this time 5-4. The Penguins made a push over the final 10 minutes of the game, but couldn't find a tying goal.
The Penguins will have a day off Friday to travel back to Pittsburgh, and return to action Saturday night at home against Florida.
