An unseasonably cold 5.44 degrees Celsius at puck drop in Tampa Bay opened the door for one of the most memorable Stadium Series games of all time on Sunday – one the Boston Bruins would like to forget.

Playing on the field at Raymond James Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Bruins let a four-goal lead slip away in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.

It was a game that included everything: a goalie fight, a raucous comeback, a stadium full of more than 60,000 fans, a shootout, and a coach in an outfit for the ages.

The only thing it didn’t include was a victory for the Bruins, who surrendered a crucial point in the standings in the middle of a tightly contested playoff race in the Eastern Conference.

David Pastrnak appeared to have scored a winner for the Bruins in overtime, but the goal was taken away because Pastrnak had committed a slashing penalty before scoring – the tenth penalty of the game on Boston. He did not hide his frustration with the call after the game when speaking to reporters.

“I have no clue what happened, honestly,” Pastrnak said. “It’s a freaking turnover. We got a 2-on-1. The referee has an arm up and is letting it go. Sway is going to the bench. We finish the play, score a goal, and all of a sudden, I’m in the penalty box. So, [it’s a] joke. I don’t understand. I’ve never seen something like that.

“The game was over, the game was in our hands,” Pastrnak said. “We had them. We made the mistakes and let them back in the game with our mistakes and you can’t afford it against a team like Tampa. They are a heck of a team.”

The game made it to overtime after a nightmare second period undid a brilliant start to the game for the Bruins.

“Yeah, this one stings, for sure,” Bruins forward Morgan Geekie, who scored twice in the loss, said to reporters in the locker room after the game.

Geekie’s second goal of the game extended the Bruins’ lead to 5-1 just over eight minutes into the second frame. That was when the wheels fell off for Boston, as the team took eight penalties over the final 11 minutes of the second period.

Tampa Bay would go on to score three times on the power play that frame, with two of the goals coming in 5-on-3 situations.

“We spent half the game in the penalty box,” said defenceman Charlie McAvoy. “It just killed our momentum. It killed the game, really. It was a good game before that and then we were in the box for that whole [second] period.

“We had complete control of the game, and you give a team with that kind of power play a 5-on-3 for I don’t know how long it was, you are just asking for it.”

Some of the penalties taken by Boston included a delay of game call against goaltender Jeremy Swayman and a closing a hand on the puck call against Sean Kuraly.

Boston entered that game stuck in a five-way competition for the top spot in the Atlantic Division at 32-20-3. A win could have pulled the Bruins to within four points of the Lightning and a tie with the Montreal Canadiens for third. The top five teams in the Atlantic Division – the Lightning, Detroit Red Wings, Canadiens, Bruins and Buffalo Sabres – have gone a combined 33-10-7 over their past 10 games.

“We just lost our composure a little bit and it cost us, unfortunately, a point,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. “Again, that is something we have to learn. That is a veteran group over there. They have been through it a lot of times. Hopefully, we learned something today.

“At the end of the day, you cannot relax if you got a lead like we had today. You can see how dangerous they are and how good they are.”

The Bruins will play the Lightning two more times before the end of the season, giving the team two chances for revenge after letting this one slip away. But until then, this loss will stick in their minds.

“Oh man, it hurts. It hurts a lot,” said McAvoy, who had two assists but also took two crucial penalties. “The way that we lost it is just brutal.”