As second-place teams having worked their way through an erratic March, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning will try to sharpen their respective games as the playoffs approach when they meet Thursday in Tampa.
The Penguins (38-21-16, 92 points), who have seven games remaining, went 8-6-3 last month but capped it with Tuesday’s 5-1 home rout of the slumping Detroit Red Wings. Pittsburgh tallied three times in the first period and received 22 saves from goaltender Stuart Skinner for their second straight win and third in four contests.
The club fortified its position in the Metropolitan Division standings over the past two games, which included a high-scoring 8-3 win at the New York Islanders on Monday.
The four points in two outings helped Pittsburgh, which trails the Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes (47-21-6, 100 points), separate on the third-place Islanders and fend off any advances from division foe Columbus, which has 88 points and holds the No. 2 wild-card spot.
“Just a massive four-point swing for us, in terms of (winning two straight), especially against those teams that we’re fighting with for spots,” said Skinner, who is 11-7-5 since being traded to Pittsburgh. “The East is so tight, so anytime you get two, three wins in a row, that’s a big jump.”
Winger Anthony Mantha netted the game’s second marker, the official game-winner, to become the ninth Pittsburgh player to reach 30 goals in the Sidney Crosby-Evgeni Malkin era, which began in the 2007 campaign, and joined a list that includes Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel.
First line right winger Bryan Rust (27 goals, 34 assists) was scratched before the game with a lower-body injury.
Breaking a recent trend against Montreal, the Lightning (46-22-6, 98 points) did not fall behind early by a multi-goal margin and have to work their way back with a strong rally. Instead, they trailed 1-0 in the first period after the Montreal Canadiens’ Juraj Slafkovsky fired in his 15th power-play goal.
Guentzel answered with his 36th tally, second on the club, just 1:16 later. But Montreal’s Cole Caufield potted No. 47 in the second, and Mike Matheson and Nick Suzuki put the game away via markers into an empty net for a 4-1 win.
For a change, Cooper was content with the way his club started.
“We were fine,” said Cooper, whose club leads the Habs by only two points in the Atlantic Division. “We didn’t fall down two-zip like we have normally, and the goal we did give up was a 5-on-3. And then we responded right away.
“Maybe we should’ve given up two. Maybe we’d have come back (and won).”
Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov returned from a two-game illness over the weekend but was held off the scoresheet.
“He’s missed two games and hasn’t been on the ice at all,” said Cooper, whose team was 8-6-2 last month. “I think he didn’t have as much gas as he normally does, but that’ll come.”
Both games between Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay have featured one-goal margins.
The Penguins won 4-3 behind Malkin’s two tallies in Tampa on Dec. 4, but the Lightning rebounded in a 2-1 victory on Kucherov’s overtime game-winner on Jan. 13.
