The Tampa Bay Lightning looked like they were ready to run away with Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Someone forgot to tell the Pittsburgh Penguins that game was over. No, the Pens didn't end up coming all the way back to beat the Bolts, but in a bitter irony after coughing up the lead in the series, it's might be Pittsburgh which carries some momentum into Sunday's Game 5 after cutting a 4-0 lead down to a 4-3 loss.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
There are a lot of questions for the Penguins to answer here over the course of the next 48 hours, but regardless, they're going to be big favorites on Sunday. They were -178 and -205 in Games 1 and 2, and we suspect they'll be around that -180 mark again back on home ice in Game 5.
GOALIE REPORT
After Matt Murray had the worst game of his playoff career allowing four goals on 30 shots, the decision was made to give Marc-Andre Fleury his first action in a game since March 31.
Fleury played well in the third period of a game which was seemingly out of hand, and now the question arises as to who will be in the pipes in Game 5. We'd bet on Fleury at this point, especially after the way the Pens came back in the third.
The Lightning still have questions in net, too. Andrei Vasilevskiy has had moments in which he's been brilliant, but he also had an awful third period in Game 4 in which he allowed three goals and was firmly beaten a couple times in the dying moments on pucks which would've been behind him had they not sailed just wide.
The pressure is going to be on Ben Bishop to get healthy in a hurry. He hasn't played since early in Game 1 when he was taken off on a stretcher, but he very well could be ready to get back in net by Sunday night.
LIVE BETTING
The goals have been finding the back of the net at a rapid pace in this series all of a sudden, and it's really because of the way these two teams are playing offensively. The Penguins are taking tons of chances to jump into plays, and the Lightning are making them pay.
It'll be interesting to see if this becomes a more conservative game in Game 5. There's a lot on the line here with this being potentially the decisive game to head to the Stanley Cup Finals, and all too often, games like this end up being of the chippy variety. We definitely don't expect to see 75 shots on net as we saw in Game 4.
QUICK PICK
The Lightning have struck most recently in this series, but the Penguins do have the momentum from that awesome third period.
We don't love the fact that this is probably going to be Fleury's first start in goal in almost two full months, but we have to trust him here. He's got a playoff pedigree and already knows what it's like to hoist the Cup, and he knows how to come off the bench as a backup and succeed. He could do so again in Game 5 in what we think could be a much more defensive-minded battle than we've seen in recent games.
NHL Odds: Penguins 2, Lightning 1
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