Pens 6, Bolts 3; Letang returns!

by Theresa · Published April 12, 2013 · Updated April 14, 2013

“They’re [Lightning] a really tough team to play against and they have a lot of talented forwards that can score goals,” said defenseman Kris Letang, who returned to the lineup after missing six games with a lower-body injury. “It’s tough. You have to be on your toes and making sure you make the right play and you can’t turn the puck over. We kept with it and we scored big goals on the power play, too, so it was a good game.”

An exciting and chippy game was played at the Tampa Bay Times Forum with the Penguins scoring 6 goals. The Lightning wouldn’t go unanswered scoring 3 with only 19 shots!. It was a hard fought win for the Pens with goals from Jussi Jokinen (2 goals), Pascal Dupuis, Chris Kunitz, Evgeni Malkin, and Tanner Glass. Kunitz and Jokinen each had 3-point games.

Kris Letang received an assist on the Kunitz goal, bring up his total to 26. He’s currently tied with Ryan Suter for 2nd among defenseman in points with 29. 5 points behind leader P.K. Subban who has 34.

From the Endgame report:
LETANG RETURNS
As per usual with Kris Letang, he jumped right in and assumed his normal duties after missing a decent chunk of time due to injury, skating on the top pairing with Brooks Orpik and manning the point on the top power-play unit.

“Kris was a welcomed guy back to our lineup tonight and could see how very good he was all over the ice,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “Made a difference 5-on-5 in the tough matchup tonight and was able to do a good job against their top guys. The power play benefitted from Kris as well back there.”

Letang is an effortless skater and just has so much skill that he makes returning to game action after a long layoff look easy, when in actuality it’s not. He still has rust to shake off, but the good news is that he has seven games left to get back feeling comfortable before the playoffs begin – and he certainly got off to the right start tonight.

“I felt pretty good,” he said. “Fun to be part of a match and obviously with the win, it makes it even better.

“I practiced on my own for a little bit, I was trying to work on different things. I was not going on the ice just to skate, I was working on things. Every time you get injured, you have to try to make sure you do something and try to learn something by watching games. I was all right coming back.”

Media Links:
Endgame
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Post Game: Coach Bylsma
Post Game: Jussi Jokinen
Post Game: Kris Letang
Post Game: Tanner Glass
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