The Tampa Bay Lightning have struggled in the second period of games this season. They’ve also struggled on the road. Oh yeah, they’ve also struggled against Atlantic Division opponents. On Saturday night they kicked all three of those situations to the curb as they absolutely dominated the Boston Bruins in the second period of their 6-2 victory.
Andrei Vasilevskiy had to make just 10 saves to pick up the win, with zero saves coming in the second period as the Lightning didn’t allow a shot to the hometown team. Anthony Cirelli snapped his goalless streak with two tallies to set a career-high of 22 goals on the season. Nikita Kucherov returned to action and added an assist in the victory.
The Lightning came out with a little more pace and desire to shoot the puck then we’ve seen in recent efforts and it paid off with an early goal. Yanni Gourde crashed the net and knocked a Bruin over. Mark Kastelic responded by knocking Gourde over and that put him out of position a little. He was late to get out to block Darren Raddysh’s attempt and the rebound went right to Victor Hedman. The Big Swede had a lot of net to shoot at and he didn’t miss.
It was obvious that the Bolts wanted to shoot a little more than they did last game as they racked up 25 shot attempts in the first 20 minutes. They were also more active in front of the net as they generated 9 high-danger chances, but Jeremy Swayman was solid in net, especially on a Lightning power play where he denied Brayden Point from in close not once, but twice.
Despite a solid power play, the Lightning stalled a little and Boston found their legs. Andrew Peeke came into the zone and drifted to the near boards. That drew a couple of Lightning players to him and left a wide open lane in the slot for Elias Lindholm. Peeke’s pass was perfect, and Lindholm directed the puck past Vasilevskiy to tie the game.
The Lightning have had good periods this season, they’ve even had great periods. They have not, until tonight, had an utterly dominating period. What’s the best way to get over defensive zone miscues? Not let the puck into the defensive zone at all. The Boston Bruins failed to register a single shot on goal throughout the entire 20 minutes.
Would you like some more numbers? How about scoring chances? 23-1 in favor of the Lightning. High-danger chances? 10-0 Lightning. Shot attempts? 42-3(!) Lightning.
Along the way, the Lightning found the back of the net three times. Nick Paul started it with a rebound goal just over two minutes into the period. Gage Goncalves made a nice play to not shoot the puck (one of the few times tonight) and fed it over to Emil Lilleberg. The Norwegian Mountain let a shot go that handcuffed Swayman, and Paul was there to put the rebound home.
Unlike the game against Philly where the Lightning had the lead a couple of times, but couldn’t extend it, they got that all-important third goal, and it was from someone in a goal-scoring drought. After another extended run of play in the Boston zone, Ryan McDonagh let a shot go and Anthony Cirelli was there to deflect it home. Tony Two Goals finally set a new career-high with 21 goals on the season.
Darren Raddysh finished off the scoring with a blast from the blueline that hit a Bruin and deflected past Swayman, who was doing his best to keep the Bruins in the game. The Boston netminder, who finished the night with 34 saves, stopped J.J. Moser twice on odd-man rushes prior to the Raddysh goal.
The Bruins still have pride and getting booed off of the ice after the second period didn’t sit well with them. They came out in the third with a nice forecheck and eventually worked the puck back to Henri Jokiharju. He let a shot go that Marat Khusnutdinov got a piece of. The puck made it through Vasilevskiy, kissed off the post and trickled over the line to make it 4-2.
Was it the beginning of a collapse for the Lightning? No. They got things going again defensively and started building a little offense. It wasn’t the dominating pressure of the second period, but it was enough to keep the Bruins in their own end. Vasilevskiy did make a really nice save on Pavel Zacha to keep the lead at two goals. Even with the extra push in the third period, the Bruins only mustered two high-danger chances in the final 20 minutes.
Boston pulled Swayman with just under four minutes to go and Brandon Hagel did what he always does – put the puck into the empty net. A few minutes later Tony Two Goals earned his nickname as he picked up his second of the night without even shooting the puck. After roughly 30 seconds of the Lightning getting denied by the Bruins, Victor Hedman swung a pass to the middle of the ice that hit Cirelli’s skate and caromed into the empty net. No one cares how it goes in, as long as it goes into the net.
While the six goals will stand out, it was the strong defensive effort that stood out tonight. With a few brief moments in the first period and then at the beginning of the third, the Lightning just didn’t allow the Bruins much of anything. The front of the net was kept clear and they blocked 12 shots to make Vasy’s night a little easier.
Easily overlooked in the offensive output was a play by Ryan McDonagh in the first period. Shortly after the Lightning took the lead, David Pastrnak was able to get behind the defense and was steaming in on Vasilevskiy. One of the most prolific goal-scorers in the league didn’t even get a shot off as McDonagh was able to lift his stick from behind at just the right time. Had Pastrnak scored then, the game could have had a different outcome.
That type of recovery when mistakes were made, along with a shoot-first mentality, were the big differences in the game tonight. We’ll see if they can keep that up against Philadelphia on Monday. It was also a good night for the Lightning on the out-of-town scoreboard as Montreal knocked off Florida and Ottawa took down Toronto. Tampa Bay moves into second play by virtue of a tie-breaker and are four points back of Florida with a game in hand.
Goals
Victor Hedman (Darren Raddysh, Brayden Point) 1-0 Lightning
Elias Lindholm (Andrew Peeke) 1-1
Nick Paul (Emil Lilleberg, Gage Goncalves) 2-1 Lightning
Anthony Cirelli (Ryan McDonagh, Yanni Gourde) 3-1 Lightning
Darren Raddysh (Emil Lilleberg, Nick Paul) 4-1 Lightning
Marat Khusnutdinov (Henri Jokiharju, Elias Lindholm) 4-2 Lightning
Brandon Hagel (Nikita Kucherov, Erik Cernak) Empty Net, 5-2 Lightning
Anthony Cirelli (Victor Hedman) Empty Net, 6-2 Lightning
The Charts
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Tampa Bay Lightning on 2025-03-15 #GoBolts
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) March 15, 2025 at 9:39 PM
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