Konopka, Zenon

Despite some concern of whether forwards Brandon Bochenski and Zenon Konopka would clear waivers, both forwards passed through unclaimed at noon on Monday and have been reassigned to the Norfolk Admirals. Bochenski and Konopka was cut from the Tampa Bay training camp on Thursday night just prior to the team leaving for its European season opener against the New York Rangers next weekend in Prague. Both had to wait until Saturday's beginning of the 2008-09 NHL waiver season. The two are expected to be two-thirds of the Admirals top line to start the 2008-09 season, with head coach Darren Rumble on record as saying that Konopka would serve as the team's captain if not claimed.

Preseason action continues for the 0-2-0-0 Admirals this Friday and Saturday when the Philadelphia Phantoms play back-to-back games at the Scope in Norfolk.

Per the Tampa Tribune, following the Thursday's preseason game with the New York Rangers, the Lightning made 3 more roster cuts prior to leaving for Europe.

Tampa reassigned prospect defenseman Matt Smaby and forwards Zenon Konopka and Brandon Bochenski to the Norfolk Admirals training camp. Konopka and Bochenski will have to clear waivers before the reassignment is completed, and the these two will be placed on waivers Friday morning.

It's nice to see the Lightning generating a lot of offensive pressure without their top guns in the lineup, despite the loss.

PIT-3
TB-2

Olaf Kolzig allowed 3 goals on 24 shots for the loss.

First Period
Tampa Bay 0:46, Jussi Jokinen 1 (Evgeny Artyukhin)
Pittsburgh 14:36, Kris Letang 1 (power play) (Alex Goligoski)
Pittsburgh 18:19, Max Talbot 1 (Ruslan Fedotenko, William Thomas)

Second Period
Tampa Bay 2:56, Michel Ouellet 1 (Dana Tyrell, Ty Wishart)

Third Period
Pittsburgh 4:54, Tyler Kennedy 1 (power play) (Kris Letang, Alex Goligoski)

Norfolk defeats Pittsburgh.

TB-5
PIT-4 (SO)

First Period
Pittsburgh 0:51, Jordan Staal 1 (Evgeni Malkin, Ben Lovejoy)

Second Period
Tampa Bay 3:50, Janne Niskala 1 (Brandon Bochenski, Jussi Jokinen)
Tampa Bay 7:06, Wyatt Smith 1 (Matt Smaby)
Tampa Bay 8:40, Brandon Bochenski 1 (Radek Smolenak, Jussi Jokinen)
Pittsburgh 15:18, Petr Sykora 1 (power play) (Miroslav Satan, Jordan Staal)

Third Period
Pittsburgh 10:11, Petr Sykora 2 (power play) (Janne Pesonen, Alex Goligoski)
Pittsburgh 17:06, Sidney Crosby 1 (shorthanded) (unassisted)
Tampa Bay 18:41, Brandon Bochenski 2 (Janne Niskala)

Overtime
NO SCORING

Shootout
Tampa Bay- Jokinen, Stamkos
Pittsburgh- NONE

Karri Ramo stopped 26 of 30 shots in regulation and overtime before stopping both shooters he faced in the penalty shot session.

This is as significant a win as you can get in the first matchup of preseason in September. The Lightning iced a team that basically represented the bulk of their players ticketed for Norfolk of the AHL while the Pens essentially iced their NHL regulars. This is a Pens team that made it to the Stanley Cup Finals last season and the Lightning prospects and AHL pros gave them all they could handle and more en route to victory. It speaks volumes for the future of this franchise.

Lots of prospects in this game: