Two points are two points. It wasn’t the slickest win of the 2024-25 season for the Tampa Bay Lightning, but on a night where two organizational stalwarts hit major milestones, they outlasted the Boston Bruins on their way to a 4-1 victory. With the victory, the Lightning moved past the Bruins into third place in the Atlantic Division.
Goals from Anthony Cirelli, Mikey Eyssimont, Brandon Hagel, and Brayden Point provided the offense while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves and the players in front of him blocked 13 shots. Ryan McDonagh provided two assists and passed the 400-point mark in his career. Point recorded his 600th career point on his 12th power play goal of the season.
It was a tentative start to the first period as both teams skated around a lot, but failed to direct any shots at the net for the first three minutes. After a bit of a feeling out process the action started to pick up, especially on the Lightning’s end as they earned two power plays. They were able to generate six shot attempts, but nothing that Jeremy Swayman had to stop. The best look came from the slot, but Brayden Point’s attempt went off of the post.
Boston had a territorial edge at even strength, but not many clean looks despite a couple of Lightning turnovers on breakouts. In the back half of the period, Oliver Wahlstrom had the best look as he got behind the Lightning checkers, but Vasilevskiy calmly turned aside his backhand attempt.
It would be hyperbolic to say that the first half of the game was uninspired, but it didn’t have the normal emotional level of a Bruins/Lightning match-up. Both teams were focused on keeping the puck out of their own net and the offensive pushes were rare. Boston did seem to control more of the play in the Lightning zone and another Lightning power play came and went without a goal (although they did get their first shots on net with the extra skater).
A late power play for the Bruins turned things around and injected some energy into the crowd. It was the Lightning who, despite being short-handed, took advantage. Ryan McDonagh controlled the puck in his own zone and, instead of passing it directly to a teammate, threw it off the boards and up the ice where Brandon Hagel was able to outskate Mason Lohrei and get a partial breakaway on Swayman. Hagel’s hard shot went wide, but the carom off of the end boards went right to Anthony Cirelli who put it past Swayman to open the scoring. With the assist, McDonagh recorded his 400th career point.
The wind was out of the sails for the Bruins over the last five minutes of the period and the Lightning took advantage. The Nick Paul line, who had been shut out in the first period (losing the shot attempts battle 7-0) cruised into the zone with Mikey Eyssimont controlling the puck. With Mitchell Chaffee driving to the front of the net, the Bruin defenseman backed off, letting Eyssimont coast into a prime scoring area. He snapped a shot past Swayman for his forth goal of the season.
Vasilevskiy had another strong period as he stopped all seven shots (and was aided by one post). One of Boston’s best chances came when Vasy almost played the puck outside of the trapezoid, got caught out of position and watched as John Beecher took a shot at a partially unguarded net. Chaffee challenged the shot enough to disrupt it and the volley went wide.
The last-minute-of-the-period goal by Eyssimont proved consequential as the Bruins came out with a sense of urgency in the third period. The early push resulted in a goal by Mason Lohrei, who was given a clear path to the slot and his wrist shot beat Vasilevskiy cleanly. For the Bruins it was their first goal from a defenseman in 17 games.
It looked like the Lightning would re-establish their two-goal lead a few minutes later. Brandon Hagel had a golden opportunity at a semi-empty net off of a deflected shot, but the puck was in his skates and he couldn’t direct his shot to the corner of the net, which allowed Swayman to make the save. Then, during the ensuing run of play, a shot leaked behind Swayman in the crease, but Hagel’s attempt to put it over the goal line hit off of the post.
The Bruins kept pushing for the equalizer, but the Lightning held firm, and Hagel eventually got his goal. With Swayman on the bench, Tampa Bay controlled the puck in the neutral zone and Hagel flipped it into the empty net from the blue line to make it 3-1.
Point made it 4-1 on a late power play as he slid a shot through Swayman’s five-hole. For Point, it was his 600th career point.
The game might not have started with a lot of intensity, but it ended with it as Mark Kastelic thought it was a good idea to take a run at Emil Lilleberg with 2.5 seconds left. Instead he found out that the youngster is not on the ice to be pushed around. Kastelic had to be helped to the bench following the fight as Lilleberg landed several clean shots. The officials ruled that the crosscheck that Lilleberg delivered prior to the fight was worthy of a game misconduct as it caught the Bruins forward across the neck.
Another scrum accompanied the final whistle, but for all of their posturing, the Bruins still found themselves with another checkmark in the loss column.
The Goals
Anthony Cirelli (Brandon Hagel, Ryan McDonagh) Short-handed, 1-0 Lightning
Mikey Eyssimont (Nick Paul, Ryan McDonagh) 2-0 Lightning
Mason Lohrei (Andrew Peeke, Brad Marchand) 2-1 Lightning
Brandon Hagel (Nikita Kucherov, Erik Cernak) Empty Net, 3-1 Lightning
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman) Power Play, 4-1 Lightning
The Charts
The Lines
