On a night where the Tampa Bay Lightning dominated the possession stats, they were never really in the game as they stumbled to an early 2-0 hole, and never dug their way out of it. While they kept things somewhat interesting by throwing 45 shots on Jeremy Swayman, they couldn’t bridge the two-goal gap, and a couple of late empty-net goals padded the Boston Bruins eventual 6-2 victory.
With Brayden Point a healthy scratch due to missing a team meeting, Jack Finley made his NHL debut, playing 8:25, finishing with a hit and a shot on goal. Point’s absence led to some reconstituted lines as Nick Paul stepped up to center the top line (briefly).
It took roughly half of the period for Coach Cooper to whip out the Blend-O-Matic Line Changer 2000 with Nikita Kucherov dropping down to join Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel. Unfortunately, by then, the Bolts were down a couple of goals. Boston opened the scoring on an odd-skater rush after Victor Hedman, well, just whiffed on a shot attempt.
With the puck just laying there, the recently recalled Matt Poitras pounced on it and scampered down the ice with Trent Frederic to his left. Poitras waited until the last possible moment to sling it over to his teammate and Frederic finished the play for the early lead.
The Bruins doubled their lead halfway through the period as the Lightning got twisted around in their own zone. David Pastrnak had a clean lane to pass the puck to Parker Wortherspoon who was clear to shoot the puck after Mitchell Chaffee and Luke Glendening bumped into each other as they tried to cover the defenseman. Wortherspoon snuck the puck inside the post for his first career goal.
So, not the best start.
The good news is that the Lightning picked up their play over the back-half of the period and finished with a 4-1 edge in high-danger chances at 5v5. Unfortunately, they didn’t convert any of those chances. A late rush by the Bruins after another Hedman turnover in the offensive zone almost made it 3-0, but Brandon Hagel broke up the play. Sure, he committed a penalty to do it, but sometimes you have to take the law into your own hands.
Sure, the Bolts were down by two goals to start the second period, but Boston has been struggling of late so their confidence can’t be too high, right? If the Lightning could score early and get their legs going, maybe they could get back into things. Or, they could miss the net on a three-on-one and see Brad Marchand put one past Andrei Vasilevskiy at the other end of the ice. Unfortunately, they chose the second option and saw the deficit grow to three goals just over a minute into the middle frame.
There was effort from the Bolts, but the execution just wasn’t there. Vasilevskiy had surrendered three goals on just seven shots, but it would be hard to fault him on any of them as he had absolutely zero support in front of him. At the other end, the Lightning had space in the Boston zone, but the passes weren’t there, and the shots that were on net, were quickly covered up by Swayman.
Tampa Bay wasn’t done digging the hole as they lost coverage on David Pastrnak during some four-on-four play and he beat Vasilevskiy cleanly. A few minutes after the goal, Emil Lilleberg squared off against Trent Frederic as Boston felt it was time to make the rookie answer for his fight against Mark Kastelic last game. The Mountain Lilly held his own against an experienced fighter, and the fight might have given the Bolts a little surge of energy.
Conor Geekie broke up the shutout as he flashed in front of the net to redirect a shot from the point from Victor Hedman. It was Geekie’s first goal since December 12th against Calgary, snapping a 12-game goalless streak. To their credit, the Lightning kept grinding away at the game and building some sustained zone time. Eventually, it led to another goal. After his initial shot was turned aside, Nikita Kucherov gathered up his own rebound and then threaded a pass to a charging Hedman. The captain, who has been known to miss the net with his shot on occasion, didn’t miss this time, and the Lightning were within two goals.
The third period got underway, slowly, as there were several stoppages in play. Erik Cernak and Nikita Zadorov had a tilt as tensions kept bubbling up. The Bolts lost Ryan McDonagh when a puck ramped up his stick and hit the veteran in the face.
They kept cranking shots at, and on the net, but with little to show for it. Jake Guentzel had an absolute golden chance from the slot, but his stick betrayed him and the shot fluttered by. With a two-goal lead, Boston seemed more than content to pack the front of their net and just flick the puck out of the zone instead of mounting any type of serious counter-attack.
Their bench was shortened when Darren Raddysh cruised across the blueline and absolutely leveled old friend Cole Koepke, who was reaching ahead to play a puck out of the zone. After initially assessing Raddysh a five-minute major, the officiating crew rescinded the penalty altogether.
Despite the copious amounts of pressure in the Bruins’ zone, the Lightning didn’t earn a penalty until there was under four minutes to go in the game. While it seemed like a good opportunity for the Lightning to cut the lead to one goal, they lost the initial face-off and Andrew Peeke split the uprights from long distance to make it 5-2. Another empty netter by Pavel Zacha made it 6-2.
Goals
Trent Frederic (Matt Poitras) 1-0 Bruins
Parker Wotherspoon (David Pastrnak, Pavel Zacha) 2-0 Bruins
Brad Marchand (David Pastrnak) 3-0 Bruins
David Pastrnak (Pavel Zacha, Andrew Peeke) 4-0 Bruins
Conor Geekie (Victor Hedman, Darren Raddysh) 4-1 Bruins
Victor Hedman (Nikita Kucherov, Nick Paul) 4-2 Bruins
Andrew Peeke (Elias Lindholm) Empty Net, Short-handed, 5-2 Bruins
Yeah, we’re not showing an empty-net goal.
Pavel Zacha (Brad Marchand, Nikita Zadorov) Empty Net, Short-handed, 6-2 Bruins
Not showing this one either.