The Tampa Bay Lightning ended a ten game losing streak against the Boston Bruins tonight at Amalie Arena as they beat Boston 5-3. It was the Bolts first victory over the Bruins since March 13, 2012.
J.T. Brown and Anton Stralman scored 15 seconds apart, less than a minute after captain Steven Stamkos, sticking up for a teammate, dropped the gloves for only the second time in his career.
The Bolts also got goals from Vladislav Namestnikov, Jason Garrison and Ondrej Palat.
Boston came into the game looking like a desperate team, losers of the past four games and clinging to a wild-card spot. The Bruins drew first blood just 33 seconds into the game as Patrice Bergeron scored his 21st of the season, beating big Ben Bishop stick side. The goal was assisted by Brad Marchand and Adam McQuaid.
Vladislav Namestnikov tied the game at 5:49, scoring his sixth of the season from Brenden Morrow and J.T. Brown. Namestnikov wouldn’t give up on the puck and scored after his third shot off a rebound.
Steven Stamkos stepped up and dropped the gloves with Boston’s Brad Marchand at 10:05 in retaliation of a late hip check that Marchand put on Valtteri Filppula. The Captain showed true leadership and the Bolts responded quickly to it. His only other NHL fight was vs. Nikolai Zherdev on November 26, 2008 in his rookie season.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K24kIkd6R5c]At 10:47, J.T. Brown netted his third of the season from Ondrej Palat and Matt Carle. In a great individual effort, Brown split two Bruins defensemen and beat Tuukka Rask glove side.
Bolts defenseman Anton Stralman continued his hot streak as he scored on a slap shot that beat Rask cleanly at 11:02 to give the Lightning a two goal lead. Valtteri Filppula and Namestnikov got the assists.
In a chippy first period, the Bolts outshot the Bruins 8-7.
Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask was yanked in favor of Niklas Svedberg after Jason Garrison scored his fourth goal on a shot from the point at 7:54 of the second period. Tyler Johnson and Matt Carle assisted on the only goal of the period.
Boston outshot Tampa Bay 10-7 in the second period.
In @NHL @TBLightning had puck for 30 consecutive seconds & Boston had no meaningful possession for 54 seconds prior to 4th goal by Bolts.
— Craig Button (@CraigJButton) March 22, 2015
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Zdeno Chara pulled the Bruins to within two on a slap shot that deflected off Brian Boyle‘s stick and past Bishop at 10:22 of the third period. The power play goal was Chara’s eighth of the season and was assisted by Reilly Smith and Lightning killer David Pastrnak.
Ondrej Palat put the Bolts back up by three, scoring a power play goal from Nikita Kucherov and Ryan Callahan at 13:50. It was Palat’s 16th goal and his fourth point in two games since returning from injury.
With 47 seconds to play Boston’s Daniel Paille scored his sixth of the season from Maxime Talbot and Gregory Campbell.
Shots for the game were 28-19 in favor of Boston.
Goalie Ben Bishop didn’t need to be the difference in the game, but was solid when called upon. He stopped 25 of 28 shots to earn his 36th win, just one away from tying the club record of 37, which he holds.
J.T. Brown earned the game’s first star, the first time he has ever had that honor in his NHL career
The Lightning are 10-0-0 when playing teams at home that are on the second game of a back-to-back.
With only ten games remaining, the Lightning (97 points) are just two points away from the Atlantic Division lead and boasting the best record in the NHL.
Cedric Paquette (upper body), Braydon Coburn (lower body) and Nikita Nesterov (healthy) were the scratches.
The Lightning will host the Florida Panthers Tuesday night.
(Feature Photograph/Getty Images)
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