In a game that resembled a lot of their recent efforts, the Tampa Bay Lightning finally found a way to pick up a win as Emil Lilleberg put home a rebound with 95 seconds left in the game to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead that they managed to hold. Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up another win as he stopped 19-fo-20 shots. Brandon Hagel returned to action and picked up his 36th goal of the season.
Prior to the game, it was announced that Zemgus Girgensons and Darren Raddysh would miss the game with day-to-day injuries. The Lightning also reassigned Jakob Pelletier to Syracuse earlier in the day. Conor Geekie and Scott Sabourin returned to the line-up along with Hagel while Declan Carlile took a spot on the defense with Raddysh out of action.
The first period was nothing if not expedient. With no whistles through the first eight-and-a-half minutes, the two teams played a quick, but tight game that didn’t yield many chances. Morgan Geekie had a clean look right in front of the net early on, but for the most part the Bolts kept a lot of the pressure to the outside. A broken chance from Jonathan Aspirot caused Vasilevskiy a little trouble after he had to go down to stop a chance that Aspirot whiffed on, but the Lightning goaltender was able to recover to make the save on the second attempt.
The Lightning only had five shots on goal, but they did generate four high-danger chances, one more than they had in the entire game against Montreal on Thursday. Charle-Edouard D’Astous did his best Darren Raddysh impersonation, ripping a one-timer through traffic that Swayman stopped. Late in the period Gage Goncalves tried to outmaneuver the goaltender, but wasn’t able to tuck the puck into the net.
Play opened up in the second period with the Bruins controlling much of the first five periods. Their best chance came after some sustained zone time with Mark Kastelic getting denied by Vasilevskiy’s blocker on a rebound attempt. Much of the trouble came from the Lightning struggling to get out of their own zone.
They did pick up their play as the period went on with one of their best chances coming off of a turnover in the Boston zone that led to Brandon Hagel ripping a shot up high on Swayman. Play was even for much of the period before the Bruins took the lead on a goal by Morgan Geekie. With the Lightning changing their point players, Charlie McAvoy spied Geekie open in the neutral zone. He quickly passed the puck to Boston’s leading goalscorer and the Bolts couldn’t close the gap until after Geekie had snapped the shot past Vasilevskiy on the breakaway.
Tampa Bay was stuck in another rut where they struggled to generate a lot of chances, but they weren’t giving up a lot either. Fraser Minton had a chance to dart in front of the net, but Vasilevskiy forced him wide and the ensuing shot didn’t make it on net. Despite not having the puck a lot, the Bolts only gave up 12 shots through two periods.
It took almost two full periods before the first penalty was called when Aspirot stuck his knee out and tripped Nikita Kucherov. The power play was wiped out when D’Astous went after the Bruin and picked up a roughing call. David Pastrnak, who had been pretty quiet for most of the day, had a couple of looks late in the period on the four-on-four, but ripped his best chance wide.
A couple of turnovers early in the third period gave the Lightning some clean looks. Nick Paul put one wide from the middle of the slot and shortly after Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Hagel had a two-on-one fizzle out. While the pressure didn’t result in a goal, it did give the Lightning their first power play of the night as Elias Lindholm was whistled for holding Jake Guentzel.
D’Astous took Raadysh’s spot on the point and Oliver Bjorkstrand returned to his spot in the left circle. After an early chance for Kucherov from distance, the top unit struggled to get the puck back into the zone and their advantage ended just after Fraser Minton had a chance all alone in front of Vasilevskiy.
Perhaps the ease in which the Bruins killed the penalty lulled them into a sense of contentment. Shortly after play returned to 5-on-5, Gage Goncalves hit Brandon Hagel on a slant pattern in the neutral zone and Hagel streaked through the defense. All alone on Swayman, his shot was stopped, but trickled behind the goaltender and over the goal-line to tie the game.
Kucherov had a couple of chances to put the Lightning in front, but he whiffed on his first chance from the slot, then had Swayman glove away his second chance just seconds later. Ryan McDonagh had a seeing eye shot from the point make it through traffic but not Swayman’s pads as the Lightning turned up the dial with the clock winding down.
The game-winning sequence started with a simple dump in by D’Astous. The Lightning did a nice job of keeping the puck in the zone and Point was able to keep his balance despite taking a couple of hits. He threw it to the net and Guentzel was able to deflect it on net. Swayman couldn’t control the rebound and Lilleberg swooped in to put the loose puck into the net for his fourth goal of the season.
Tampa Bay wasn’t able to cash in with the empty net. Because everything has to be a grind this year, Brandon Hagel was sent to the box with 36 seconds left to give Boston a 6-on-4 advantage to end the game. After a few shots from the Bruins, a diving Anthony Cirelli was able to sweep the puck down the ice to seal the win.
The Goals
Morgan Geekie [38] (Charlie McAvoy) 1-0 Bruins
Brandon Hagel [36] (Gage Goncalves, Ryan McDonagh) 1-1
Emil Lilleberg [4] (Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point) 2-1 Lightning
Pretty Colors
#NHL Game Score Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2026-04-11: #GoBolts
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) April 11, 2026 at 3:04 PM
[image or embed]
