This was the Lightning’s second straight subpar outing. On Thursday, they were able to overcome defensive problems and beat Buffalo. In this contest, however, they were flat throughout the game and saw their seven-game home winning streak come to an end.
As the players stated afterward, they were outworked. Boston brought a higher compete level, and this was evident from the opening faceoff. Not only did the Lightning lose puck battles, they were sloppy with their puck play. They had no flow to their game — a trend that continued throughout the contest. Credit the Bruins for defending well and checking tightly.
Despite their struggles, the Lightning managed to keep high-danger scoring chances to a minimum. But a defensive-zone turnover in the second period yielded an in-alone chance for Cole Koepke. Andrei Vasilevskiy made the save on Koepke but couldn’t cover the rebound. Oliver Bjorkstrand attempted to swat the puck out of the crease. Instead, it hit off the back of Vasilevskiy’s leg and caromed into the net at 10:32.
The Bruins received a fortunate bounce on their second goal as well. Actually, two fortunate bounces. Ian Mitchell’s dump-in attempt from the neutral zone drew Vasilevskiy out of the crease. The puck never entered the Lightning end, however. It hit off of Patrick Brown, who was exiting the zone, and ricocheted to Mark Kastelic in the middle of the ice. Kastelic fired the puck. It deflected off Darren Raddysh’s stick and bounced past Vasilevskiy, who was still moving back to the middle of the net. The goal came at 13:16 of the third.
The Bruins added an empty-netter at 14:52 and a fourth goal just over a minute later when David Pastrnak set up Koepke on a two-on-one.
When the game was still 1-0, the Lightning had a glorious chance to tie the score. Early in the third, the puck bounced through the Boston crease to Brandon Hagel at the other side of the net. It appeared that Hagel had an open net. But Jeremy Swayman reached out with his stick to cover the bottom of the net. Hagel’s shot hit Swayman’s stick and deflected up. It hit the bottom of the crossbar and stayed out.
Despite the loss, the Lightning banked lots of points during what has been a home-heavy portion of the schedule over the past several weeks. Now the schedule balance shifts — the Lightning will play six of their next seven on the road. They know they’ll need to raise their level from what they displayed in the past two games.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game (as selected by Phil Esposito):
- Jeremy Swayman — Bruins. 26-save shutout.
- Cole Koepke — Bruins. Two goals.
- Nikita Zadorov — Bruins. ENG.
