Boston Falls to Tampa Bay, suffers 10th loss of the season
Via nhl.com
There was a rare event that took place in the NHL on Thursday night, which was that the Boston Bruins lost a game. The first-place Bruins traveled to Tampa Bay to take on the Lightning and the three-time defending Eastern Conference champions got the best of Boston winning the game 3-2.
Boston entered the game sitting comfortably in first place in the NHL with an astounding 38-5-4 record and Tampa Bay was holding on to third in the Atlantic Division. Tampa Bay came out hard and took a 1-0 lead just over ten minutes into the game when Nikita Kucherov set up Brandon Hagel right in front of the net on the power-play. The game went into the first intermission with Tampa Bay leading 1-0.
The second period was an even back-and-forth battle while the Bruins fought to tie the game. The game went to four on four after Mikhail Sergachev of the Lighting and Taylor Hall of the Bruins got penalties for cross-checking and goalie interference respectively. With just over two minutes left in the second period, Boston’s effort paid off when Brad Marchand scored from a shot in the slot while playing four on four. Marchand’s goal sent the game into the second intermission tied at one.
Tampa Bay came out flying in the third period and just 58 seconds into the period, Steven Stamkos won a faceoff in their offensive zone back to Nikita Kucherov who shot the puck without hesitation. Kucherov’s shot deflected off Brayden Point’s skate and into the back of the net to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead. They would not hold the lead for long though as Pavel Zacha scored off of a pass from David Krejci to tie the game at two, less than a minute and a half later.
The two teams went back and forth with multiple scoring opportunities but Tampa Bay’s efforts paid off first. Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos entered their offensive zone on a two-on-one and Point sent a pass across the ice that missed Stamkos. The missed pass worked in the Lightning’s favor as the puck slid out to Victor Hedman who took advantage of Boston’s Brandon Carlo accidentally knocking down their goalie Linus Ullmark and scored to give Tampa Bay the lead with 6:41 left in the third period. The Lighting were able to hold off Boston’s late-game push to win 3-2.
The Bruins are currently on pace for the most points in NHL history. The loss was just Boston’s sixth loss in regulation and their tenth loss overall. They will look to bounce back on Saturday as they travel to southern Florida to take on the Florida Panthers.
