The Tampa Bay Lightning were looking to win their fifth consecutive game as they traveled to the northeast to face the big, bad Boston Bruins. All they had to overcome to do it was brush off losing three players to injury, exorcise the ghosts of Steven Stamkos‘ broken leg and win in a place they have lost 38 of 42 games in their franchise history. The Lightning played well enough to win, but Boston’s Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand scored in the shootout to hand Tampa Bay their tenth straight loss in the City on a Hill.
Tampa Bay started slowly and could only muster one shot on goal through the first 7:47 of the game. Goalie Ben Bishop stopped all seven of the Bruins shots in that time-span. As the period progressed, the Bolts found their legs and looked much better.
The Bruins struck first as Lightning killer David Pastrnak scored his ninth of the season at 7:57 of the first period from Ryan Spooner and Milan Lucic. It looked as if Pastrnak kicked it in but the play was reviewed and it was ruled a goal because there was “no distinct kicking motion,” according to the NHL situation room.
Steven Stamkos tied the game as he stole the puck from Zdeno Chara and beat Tuukka Rask cleanly from the slot with a wicked wrister for his 37th of the season, unassisted at 15:29. It was Stamkos’ 15th goal against the Bruins in 25 games.
The period ended 1-1 with Boston outshooting Tampa Bay 15-9.
Despite losing three members of the penalty kill unit to injury, the Bolts killed off both Bruins man advantages.
Tampa Bay started the second stanza on fire, outshooting the Bruins 7-1 in the first half of the period. The number one line of Stamkos, Ryan Callahan and Alex Killorn were buzzing, spending a lot of time in the Bruins end.
The Bruins were under siege by the Lightning the entire second period with Tuukka Rask standing on his head and stopping all 16 Bolts shots. Boston could muster only four shots on Bishop.
Boston took a 2-1 lead at 2:20 of the third period as Patrice Bergeron scored his 19th of the season just under Bishop‘s glove. Dennis Seidenberg got the assist. This was one that Bishop should have had.
At 8:04, Vladislav Namestnikov tied the game at two as he kicked a rebound to his stick and beat Rask for his fifth of the season. Mark Barberio and Andrej Sustr assisted on the goal.
Both goalies were stout the rest of the period as the game went to overtime tied at two. The Bolts earned their first point in Boston since March 25, 2010.
In a rare penalty filled overtime that saw Steven Stamkos get a mandatory ten-minute misconduct for throwing a broken stick that ended up in the stands (The Alfredsson Rule), the Lightning dominated but couldn’t score as the game went to a shootout.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdWd2H_Q2RU]In the shootout, Boston’s Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand scored to give the Bruins the 3-2 win and hand Tampa Bay their tenth straight loss in Boston.
Tampa Bay outshot Boston 37-30.
The Bolts penalty kill was outstanding especially Victor Hedman and Jason Garrison.
The Bolts earned a point to give them 91 on the season and tie them with Montreal for the Atlantic Division lead, although the Canadiens have a game in hand.
Cedric Paquette (upper body), Braydon Coburn (lower body), Ondrej Palat (lower body) and Matt Carle (abdominal surgery) were the scratches.
The Lightning will host the Winnipeg Jets Saturday night.
(Feature Photograph/Getty Images)
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