s ninth career goal in a potential elimination game. Guentzel then took a feed from Crosby and slipped it between

The Tampa Bay Lightning Custom Colorado Avalanche Jerseys , unbeaten in their last six games, continue their five-game road trip with a difficult stretch of three games in four days, continuing with a matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday afternoon.The Lightning (6-1-1, 13 points) defeated Colorado 1-0 on Wednesday and play at Arizona on Saturday night after the matinee matchup with the Golden Knights (4-4-1, 9 points). The game will be played during the day on Friday because of Nevada Day, a holiday celebrated Nevada’s statehood anniversary.Vegas had big news off the ice Friday by extending defenseman Nate Schmidt’s contract to six years, worth $35.7 million. Schmidt is in Austria www.officialbluejackets.com , where he is practicing with the Vienna Capitals while serving a 20-game suspension for violating the NHL’s policy on performance enhancing drugs.Article continues below ...Tampa Bay is 2-0-1 on its road trip (five points in three games) that started with an overtime loss against Minnesota on Saturday followed by a win the next day against Chicago.The Lightning lead the NHL for points-percentage (.813).“That was a good one,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said following the defensive struggle against Colorado. “It was just fun to be a part of and have the seat I have to watch it.”Nikita Kucherov netted the game’s only goal on a third period power play with less than 14 minutes remaining. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 23 shots to record his first shutout of the season.The Lightning went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill against the Avalanche to improve to 32-of-33 this season. They remain in the lead in the NHL for penalty-kill percentage at 97. They rank tied for third in the NHL for least amount of goals allowed per game (2.25).Tampa Bay is still in search of its first win over Vegas after getting swept in last season’s two-game series by the expansion Golden Knights. In the one meeting played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the Lightning and Knights appeared ready to go to overtime last December, but Shea Theodore scored to break the tie with three seconds remaining to help Vegas earn the win. The Golden Knights won the game 4-3.“I think hands down scoring a game-winner with only a couple seconds left has to rank up there for me,” Theodore told the Las Vegas Review-Journal Thursday after practice. “I remember there was a battle for the puck in the corner. I was just kind of waiting at the top of the circles on the other side.“I took a quick glance at the clock. I knew it was winding down. The pass came across, and I knew I only had a couple of seconds left, so I just tried to get it off. The fact the puck popped out to me like it did was perfect.”The Knights are looking for consistency after having a three-game winning streak snapped in a home shootout loss to Vancouver on Wednesday. After the game Columbus Blue Jackets T-Shirts Authentic , Vegas coach Gerard Gallant expressed disappointment at his team’s effort in the first two periods.He is concerned about going against Tampa Bay, which he calls a “favorite for the Stanley Cup again this year.”“They’re a top team … we’re going to have to play a great game,” Gallant added. “They’ve got a lot of offense, a lot of talent, great goaltending. They’ve got everything you need from a hockey club.” PITTSBURGH (AP) Sean Couturier did what he could to deal with the pain in his left leg, then hopped over the boards and let the adrenaline that comes with playoff hockey take care of the rest.The Philadelphia Flyers are still alive as a result.Barely 72 hours removed from a frightening collision with a teammate in practice threatened to end his season, Couturier returned for Game 5 and threaded a shot through traffic that slipped past Matt Murray and into the net with 1:15 left to lift the Flyers to a 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night to send the series back to Philadelphia.”I think it might have hit one of their guys Columbus Blue Jackets Hoodies Authentic ,” Couturier said. ”Lucky bounce, but we’ll take them.”The Flyers certainly need them. They still trail 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Sunday but counterpunched effectively against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.Valtteri Filppula’s short-handed goal tied it late in the second period shortly after the Penguins had taken the lead and Couturier’s second goal of the playoffs was a knuckler that deflected off Pittsburgh defenseman Brian Dumoulin and by a surprised Murray.Claude Giroux picked up his first goal of the series and Matt Read added an empty-netter. Michal Neuvirth stopped 30 shots, including a diving stop on the doorstep to deny Penguins star Sidney Crosby with 50 seconds left.”I like playing in the playoffs, like facing the pressure,” Neuvirth said after making his first start in more than two months in place of struggling Brian Elliott. ”But it’s only one game and we came here to win a hockey game. We did that. Now we have to win the next one.”Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust scored for the Penguins. Murray made 21 saves but Pittsburgh missed a chance to close out the Flyers thanks in part to a slow start and a power play that was the best in the league during the regular season went 0 for 5.”I thought the second and third (periods) we were much better,” Crosby said. ”We ended up making a couple mistakes that ended up in our net.”Mistakes that injected some actual tension into a series devoid of it coming in. The first four games were blowouts on the scoreboard if not always on the ice, three of them ending with the Flyers skating off the ice wondering what they needed to do to keep pace with cross-state rivals.Philadelphia coach Dave Hakstol Columbus Blue Jackets Hats Authentic , perhaps fighting for his job, made his first significant change in an effort to keep his team’s season alive, giving Neuvirth his first playoff start in nearly two years after Elliott couldn’t shake out of a funk that saw him pulled in Game 1 and again in Game 4.The Flyers also Couturier back to center the third line just three days after teammate Radko Gudas accidentally took him out during a drill in practice that forced Couturier to watch Pittsburgh’s clinical 5-0 Game 4 romp from the press box.There was no need for change in Pittsburgh, which has developed a killer instinct under coach Mike Sullivan it lacked at times earlier in the Crosby/Evgeni Malkin era. The Penguins came in 8-5 in potential close-out games since Sullivan took over in December 2015, including a 5-2 mark at home.Make it 5-3.Giroux, a non-factor through much of the series, gave Philadelphia the lead 17:29 into the first when he found some space in the slot and took a pretty feed from behind the Pittsburgh net by Jakub Voracek to pump a shot by Murray.The Penguins replied with two goals in a 4:45 span in the second for the first lead change of the series. Bryan Rust beat Neuvirth with a wrap around 12 minutes into the second for his ninth career goal in a potential elimination game. Guentzel then took a feed from Crosby and slipped it between Neuvirth’s legs to put Pittsburgh in front.The Flyers Custom Columbus Blue Jackets Jerseys , for the first time since Game 2, responded. Now Philadelphia has to do it again at home, a place where the Penguins outscored the Flyers 10-1 while rolling in Games 3 and 4.”We have to keep battling next game and play the with same kind of mentality,” Couturier said. ”It was a road game. We didn’t put a show on, but we kept it tight and found a way to win.”NOTES: Penguins F Patric Hornqvist missed his second straight game due to an upper-body injury. Hornqvist did skate earlier Friday and remains day-to-day. … Malkin missed the final 4 minutes of the first period after Philadelphia’s Jori Lehtera fell on it when the two got tangled in the corner. Malkin returned to start the second period.—