With a 4-1 lead early in the second period it seemed like the Tampa Bay Lightning were well on their way to an easy victory over the Boston Bruins. Any experienced Bolts fan knew that they do very few things the easy way. Sure enough, the Bruins scored twice more in the second period to slice the lead to just one goal. However, the Lightning defense put together a solid third period, and while they didn’t score, the offense put enough pressure on the Bruins to keep them honest. When the final horn sounded, the Lightning had their first victory, 4-3, while Boston had their first loss.
Coach Cooper kept the line changes he made midway through Saturday’s loss to the New Jersey Devils and it paid off as Jake Guentzel caused a turnover in the neutral zone. The Bolts worked the puck into the zone and Anthony Cirelli finished off a feed from Guentzel to put the Lightning up just over a minute into the game.
Tony Two Goals would live up to his nickname later in the period as the Lightning forecheck caused another turnover and Cirelli was there to finish the feed from Guentzel to make it 2-0. It wasn’t a pretty period from either team as the puck was jumping off of sticks and plays were broken up all over the ice. Still, the Lightning were doing most of the disrupting and carried the play.
The offensive fun continued for the first five minutes of the play, with the Bruins joining in the fun. J.J. Moser, back from his two-game suspension, made a nice keep at the blueline, poking the puck to Pontus Holmberg in the center of the ice. Holmberg cut in front of the net and had everyone thinking he was going to test Joonas Korpisalo with a backhand, but the former Maple Leaf spun and fed the puck to Yanni Gourde who had a wide-open net to put the puck into. And he did.
Thirty seconds later Casey Mittelstadt put Boston on the board, wristing a shot past Jonas Johansson. Holmberg re-established the three-goal lead two minutes later, tucking home a loose puck at the side of the net. Two minutes after that, Jordan Harris took advantage of a bad pinch/missed hit by Erik Cernak to fling a puck past JoJo on a two-on-one. It was a hectic five minutes.
Midway through the period Morgon Geekie made it uncomfortably close as he fired a shot past Johansson right off of a face-off win by Pavel Zacha. For a team that is on a two-game losing streak, and hasn’t played well, it would be the perfect time for the Lightning to fold and concede a tying goal. They didn’t. Even though they had given up three goals in the period, they weren’t playing poorly.
They were still generating chances (and shots) while forcing Boston to work their way the entire 200 feet. It wasn’t always pretty (especially in the face-off dot where they went 19-of-60) but it was effective. They committed to their structure in the defensive zone and were able to get pucks out, often with possession to work it down the ice and bleed time off of the clock.
That play carried into the third period. They may have only been credited with 5 shots on goal, but they did have 18 attempts. The puck was in the Boston zone a lot in the final period. The penalty kill continued it’s strong start to the season, as they killed off another five short-handed chances, including a 6-on-4 with 10 seconds left after Erik Cernak was sent to the box for a phantom hooking call.
While he had a rough night in the face-off circle overall (4-for-24), Cirelli won two big draws in the final 30 seconds of the game to help pull off the victory. Hagel unfortunately remains snake-bitten when it comes to scoring goals. He missed a pretty wide open net early in the game, and then had David Pastrnak make a ridiculous kick save defending an empty net.
Overall, it was a solid win and the Bolts played a much more coherent game than they did in their first two outings. The Bjorkstrand – Gourde – Holmberg line had a really nice night with two goals and an 8-1 edge in scoring chances. Boston played Nikita Kucherov pretty well, as they often do, and despite the Brayden Point line generating some shots, they were kept to the perimeter.
Getting goals from the middle-six was the difference in this game, and that’s the depth that should make the Lightning a top team in the East despite their tough first two games. There isn’t much time to revel in the victory as they are off to Washington for another game on Tuesday.
The Goals
Anthony Cirelli (Jake Guentzel, Gage Goncalves) 1-0 Lightning
"ANTHONY CIRELLI!!!!!" A tic-tac-toe play to start off strong! Goncalves ➡️ Guentzel ➡️ Cirelli #TBLvsBOS 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 1:22 PM
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Anthony Cirelli (Jake Guentzel, Gage Goncalves) 2-0 Lightning
"CIRELLI!!! ANOTHER ONE!!!!!" Another one for AC! #TBLvsBOS 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 1:43 PM
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Yanni Gourde (Pontus Holmberg, J.J. Moser) 3-0 Lightning
"What a pass by Pontus Holmberg!!!!!" Holmy with x-ray vision! #TBLvsBOS 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 2:18 PM
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Casey Mittelstadt (Viktor Arvidsson, Pavel Zacha) 3-1 Lightning
Boston goal! Scored by Casey Mittelstadt with 18:51 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Viktor Arvidsson and Pavel Zacha. Boston: 1 Tampa Bay: 3 #TBLvsBOS #NHLBruins #GoBolts
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 2:13 PM
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Pontus Holmberg (Oliver Bjorkstrand, Max Crozier) 4-1 Lightning
"SCORREEE!!! HOLMBERG!!!" 1st Lightning goal alert for Pontus Holmberg! 🚨 #TBLvsBOS 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
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Jordan Harris (David Pastrnak) 4-2 Lightning
Boston goal! Scored by Jordan Harris with 14:29 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by David Pastrnak. Boston: 2 Tampa Bay: 4 #TBLvsBOS #NHLBruins #GoBolts
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 2:21 PM
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Morgan Geekie (Pavel Zacha) 4-3 Lightning
[Sorry no highlight available for this one as we’re having some embedding issues with NHL.com highlights. Go check it out here if you want to…JG]
