Takeaways: Crucial Shorthanded Goal Leads Lightning To 6-2 Victory Over Penguins

Coming off two of their best wins of the season, it would have been fair to expect the Pittsburgh Penguins to keep things rolling along when they flew to Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning Thursday. Unfortunately, they were unable to continue whatever momentum they had from those games into this one. After leading 2-1 heading into the second period, the Penguins allowed five consecutive Tampa Bay goals and were defeated by the Lightning, 6-3.

With the win - and in combination with a loss by the Buffalo Sabres - the Lightning took over first place in the Atlantic, while the Penguins were pretty much unaffected standings-wise by the regulation loss. Even if the score indicates otherwise, the Penguins actually played very well for the first half of this game. Tampa Bay opened the scoring a little more than five minutes into the first period when Anthony Cirelli beat Penguins' goaltender Stuart Skinner for his 21st of the season.

But, the Penguins responded less than two minutes later when the red-hot Rickard Rakell took a Sam Girard feed at the goal line, kicking the puck behind himself and straight to the blade of his stick before burying his 21st goal of the season to tie the game. Tricky Ricky is riding a six-game point streak (7G-2A) 🔥 pic. twitter.

com/8Id2pF6txP — Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 2, 2026 And with less than four to go in the opening frame, Egor Chinakhov - playing on Sidney Crosby's left wing for the third consecutive game - used his speed to break into the offensive zone and down the right side before he placed a perfect backhander over Andrei Vasilevskiy to give the Penguins the lead. Egor Chinakhov supremacy. pic.