A poor start doomed the Lightning, as they allowed four unanswered goals in the opening 26:05. Although they pushed hard in the final 14 minutes of the second period and reduced the deficit to two, they were unable to pull themselves out of the hole they dug.
The Lightning have been a strong first-period team all season, but they struggled in all three first periods on this road trip. Versus the Devils and Penguins, they got out of those periods either tied or only down by one. Against the Bruins, however, their subpar first period put them behind by multiple goals.
An early miscue in the offensive zone fueled a two-on-one counter tally for the Bruins. At the top of the left circle, Victor Hedman put his stick blade over the puck as he attempted to make a play. The puck hit off Charlie Coyle’s skate and caromed to Matt Poitras. On the ensuing odd-man rush, Poitras set up Trent Frederic for the opening goal at 4:24. Just over five minutes later, the Lightning lost coverage on defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, who finished a left-circle shot into the top of the net at 9:30.
Early in the second period, the Lightning had a great opportunity to cut the lead in half. During a three-on-one rush, however, Hedman missed the net. The Bruins countered, and Brad Marchand finished a left-circle shot inside the far post at 1:13. Minutes later, with the teams skating four-on-four, Andrei Vasilevskiy made an initial save on an Andrew Peeke shot. The Lightning fumbled the rebound, and Pavel Zacha set up David Pastrnak for an open look at the left circle. Pastrnak one-timed it in at 6:05.
Just over a minute later, Frederic challenged Emil Lilleberg to a fight. This stemmed from Lilleberg’s fight with Mark Kastelic last week in Tampa at the end of the game. Kastelic was injured in the fight. The Frederic-Lilleberg fight helped sharpen the Lightning’s play, and they dominated the rest of the second period. Soon after the fight, Conor Geekie won a faceoff from his brother Morgan and tipped Hedman’s point shot past Jeremy Swaymen. In the closing seconds of the period, Nikita Kucherov set up Hedman at the left circle for another goal. Hedman whistled a shot through Swayman’s pads.
But Swayman denied every other Lightning chance in the second period. The Lightning posted 20 second-period shots on goal and 31 attempts. Swayman’s goaltending helped the Bruins preserve a multi-goal lead after 40 minutes.
The Lightning tried to keep pressing in the third, but their attack wasn’t as dangerous as it had been in the second. They did register 16 shots in the third, but many were longer-range attempts. Swayman made initial saves and didn’t allow rebounds. A late penalty on Brandon Carlo gave the Lightning their first power-play chance of the game, but the Bruins tallied two short-handed empty-netters during the infraction.
The Lightning picked up three points during the three-game trip. Their intense January schedule continues on Thursday when they face Anaheim at Amalie Arena.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game:
- Jeremy Swayman — Bruins. 43 saves.
- David Pastrnak — Bruins. Goal and two assists.
- Andrew Peeke — Bruins. Goal and assist.
