12/15/14

Dumoulin, Rust Score First NHL Goals in 4-2 Penguins' Win

The Pittsburgh Penguins faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Consol Energy Center on Monday night. Marc-Andre Fleury got the start in net for the Pens and Ben Bishop was between the pipes for the Lightning. The score remained scoreless for a majority of the first period. at 18:45 of the first period, Penguins' forward Steve Downie was assessed a two-minute tripping penalty. With the Pens down a man, defenseman Rob Scuderi found forward Brandon Sutter, who fired a shot top shelf against Bishop to give the Pens a 1-0 lead at 19:09. Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin tied the score at 1-1 when he tapped the puck past Fleury at 19:33. After one period of play, the score was tied 1-1. At the start of the second period, the Lighting replaced Bishop with 39-year-old Evgeni Nabokov. The Pens took a 2-1 lead at 2:55 of the second period when Andrew Ebbett found Bryan Rust, who scored his first NHL goal. The Pens expanded the lead to 3-1 when Steve Downie scored a power play goal at 19:26. The Pens held a 3-1 lead after two periods of play. The Pens increased their lead to 4-1 at 7:47 when Brian Dumoulin snapped the puck past Nabokov for his first NHL goal. The Lightning cut the Pens' lead to 4-2 at 16:56 on Nikita Kucherov's 12th goal of the season. The score held true and the Pens won the game 4-2.