The Tampa Bay Lightning were absolutely filled in by the Boston Bruins on Saturday night and still came away with a 3-2 overtime win. The Bolts were outshot 42-73 at 5v5 and only had a third of the scoring chances of the Bruins.
Taylor Raddysh scored his first career NHL goal shorthanded on a beautiful move. Ondrej Palat scored the second goal, and Steven Stamkos wired home the overtime winner after a two-goal Bruins comeback in the second half of the game.
Andrei Vasilevskiy was huge in this game, stopped 37 of 39 shots on goal in the win, with Jeremy Swayman giving up 3 on 25 shots.
Jon Cooper spoke after the game quite bluntly, saying it was pretty obvious his team played poorly and were very fortunate to come away with two points, let alone one.
Jon Cooper on this game: “An 82 game league, it is hard to always play your best … we will take these points and run”
— Gabby Shirley (@Gabby_Shirley_) December 5, 2021
At the end of the day, you have to be happy with two more points banked in the standings without two of the team’s best players available. The Lightning have played great recently and won some important games. This wasn’t one of the better performances (almost the worst of the season until the last several minutes of the game) but they still came away with the win. Bank those points and move on.
First Period
The Lightning have struggled with their power play since losing Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, and that continued in this game as the team couldn’t even get set up in the offensive zone on this power play.
1-0
Taylor Raddysh scores his first career NHL goal! After getting nothing done on the power play, Zach Bogosian took a penalty to put the Lightning down a skater and Raddysh converts with a brilliant move on the breakaway. A highlight reel goal from start to finish, including the celly. Mikhail Sergachev got the lone assist on the goal.
David Pastrnak had a chance off the post in the final few minutes of the period. Other than that missed shot, Vasilevskiy had to be the best player for the Lightning, stopping 12 shots in the first period alone.
After One
It was frankly a bad period for the Lightning as they gave up 25 shot attempts at 5v5 while taking only 11 — that’s only 30%. Worse than the total shots is the quality of chances against as the Bruins were all over the front of the net. Little did we know it would get worse.
Second Period
2-0
Palat! Astonishingly, despite getting totally out-played, Palat doubled the Lightning lead early in the second period on a rush with Anthony Cirelli and Stamkos. Palat was at the top of the zone and tried to make a shot-pass to Stamkos, but the puck bounced off the skate of Tomas Nosek and went under Swayman. Cirelli and Victor Hedman picked up the assists on the goal.
2-1
It was about time the Bruins got on the board. They were circling all over the ice, getting clean looks all over the play. After a shot from Craig Smith opened up a rebound, Erik Haula passed the puck across the ice to Charlie Coyle who scored on the wide open net.
The Lightning had a power play later in the period after the goal against and they were at least able to get four shot attempts. Hedman had two shots, Stamkos and Corey Perry each had one.
After Two
Not really sure what to say about this period, the Lightning got killed once again on the shot clock, 12-27. Shots on goal were 5-15, and the Lightning had an even worse share of the expected goals, 20%.
Third Period
2-2
Yeah and there it is. Early in the third period, the Bruins tied the game. Curtis Lazar picked up a dump in off the stanchion behind the net, deked, and beat Vasilevskiy on the glove side. Carlo was the one to dump the puck in so he got the primary assist. The Lightning got some bad luck on this goal, but it was clearly coming for most of the game.
The Lightning had their best period of the game after giving up the tying goal, keeping up with the Bruins in shot attempts. Despite the lack of volume in shots, the Lightning still looked pretty dangerous. For example, late in the game Cirelli nearly got a chance on a breakaway at the end of the period, but he didn’t quite catch up to the puck in time before it rolled to Swayman.
Overtime
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Alex Killorn rounded out the first trio out there with Hedman. They drove the defense back with some lateral play and Bellemare’s first shot nearly fell for Killorn on the rebound.
Charlie Coyle had the next chance as he caught Bellemare going the wrong way. Hedman actually tried to give him a shove to get the Bruin, but it had to come to Vasilevskiy to stop the centerman.
3-2
Steven Stamkos does it again! Going one way, all three Lightning players on the ice converged on the front of the net as they had what looked like a good chance, but the Bruins were able to send Pastrnak the other way. Sergachev, who had some momentum going the other way, caught up to him, forcing a missed shot. Sergachev then grabbed the puck and sent Stamkos going the other way! And the captain did it all himself from there.
