Cooper: 'We have to play better, bottom line'

The Pittsburgh Penguins forced a winner-take-all Game 7 with a crushing 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

The Lightning failed to take advantage of a 3-2 series lead and Game 6 on home ice, and now head coach Jon Cooper knows his team needs to respond.

"They volleyed the ball into our court, now it's time for us to smash it back," Cooper said, according to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.

The Lightning were outscored 3-0 in the first 40 minutes, a hill too high for them to climb, as the team fell short of a comeback after bringing the game within one at 3-2.

"They played better than us for two periods. That's it," said Cooper. "We have to play better than them, that's the bottom line."

The Lightning will now play in their second Eastern Conference Final Game 7 in as many years, something Cooper knows will be in the minds of his players.

"What I can take from last year is we went to Game 7 and we won Game 7," Cooper said, according to NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "I bet we'll be thinking about that."