A fast start helped the Tampa Bay Lightning earn their first win of the 2025-26 season at TD Garden on Monday.

A new look on offense helped make it happen, as the offensive trio of Anthony Cirelli, Jake Guentzel and Gage Goncalves gave the visitors a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes. The Lightning used that early jump to take a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins for their first Atlantic Division win of the season.

“I thought we came out flying. Obviously a good start,” Cirelli said. “Did some good things I thought throughout the game, obviously there’s some things that we still kind of need to get a little better at, but it’s always nice to come out with a win.”

Cirelli’s first goal of the 2025-26 season came just 69 seconds into Monday’s victory.

Guentzel forced a turnover in the neutral zone and handed the puck to Goncalves, who entered the zone and gave the puck back to Guentzel at the right faceoff dot. Guentzel fed Cirelli at the left post, who tapped the puck home for a 1-0 lead 1:09 into the game.

The same trio combined for the 2-0 goal with 6:44 remaining in the first period—Guentzel intercepted a Bruins breakout pass to keep the puck in the offensive zone, where Goncalves went to work behind the goal line. He found Guentzel down low, and Cirelli’s shot in tight beat Boston goalie Jonas Korpisalo to the right goalpost.

“Gonzo and Guentz are two unbelievable players, and they make so many plays,” Cirelli said of the new-look line. “They’re so skilled and they know where guys are before it happens. Both of them made unbelievable plays on those two goals, so it doesn’t happen without them.”

Tampa Bay went on to take a 4-1 lead in the second period, and new addition Pontus Holmberg was central in each of the final two Lightning goals.

Holmberg skated to the right post early in the second period and delivered a spinning pass to Yanni Gourde, who tapped the 3-0 goal into an open cage 39 seconds into the frame. The goal was Gourde’s 203rd career point with Tampa Bay, tying Teddy Purcell for 20th all-time.

Boston’s Casey Mittelstadt answered with a goal 30 seconds later to make it 3-1, but Holmberg’s first goal with the Lightning restored the three-goal advantage. Holmberg corralled a loose puck at the right post for his first of the year after Oliver Bjorkstrand’s initial shot.

“He makes an all-world play on the assist to Gourde…but he can puck protect, he’s heavy and he can think it out,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Holmberg’s game. “It was gritty, gutty. He’s got a lot of intangibles you’re looking for. So it was a good effort by him tonight.”

Holmberg’s goal stood as the game-winner to hand Boston (3-1-0) their first loss of the year.

“It was pretty good,” Holmberg said of his night. “A couple of bad penalties, but overall it was pretty good, so I’m happy for that.”

Boston scored the next two goals, the first coming from Jordan Harris on the rush 5:31 into the second period before Morgan Geekie made it 4-3 just past the midway point of the period.

The Lightning held on for the win, in part thanks to another perfect performance on the penalty kill—Tampa Bay erased all five Boston power plays on Monday.

“The way we got to the 4-1 lead, there was a lot of winning hockey in there, and the reason we took a little bit of a step back and gave it up was because we got away from winning hockey…4-1 goes to 4-3 and now you’re grinding,” Cooper said postgame.

“There was so much good about tonight, and there were a lot of winning habits. We’ve just got to keep shuffling the losing ones out. But the compete and to go down shorthanded at the end there and huge draws by (Cirelli), we needed that. Hopefully we can continue that moving forward.”

One area the Lightning will look to improve is in the faceoff circle, as Boston won 41 of 60—or 68%—of draws on Monday.

“It’s an onus on the centers. We’ve just got to be better,” Cirelli said. “That can’t happen…It’s such a big part of the game when you never start with the puck when we’re losing draws and that’s got to be a focus. We’ve got to watch some video and we’ve got to definitely be better in that regard because that’s unacceptable.”

Goalie Jonas Johansson was busy in the game’s final minutes to keep the Bruins off the board, stopping 30 shots on goal total for his first win of the season.

“There was no quit in them (Boston) and they kept coming and coming, and with us a couple too many turnovers, a couple too many penalties, which hurts us,” Cirelli said, “but I thought JJ was huge back there and making unbelievable saves. It came down to the wire, but it was just nice to get the win.”

Tampa Bay will look for another win, one that can even their season record, when they close a back-to-back on the road against the Washington Capitals at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

Pontus Holmberg, TBL (Game-winning goal, assist)

Anthony Cirelli, TBL (2 goals)

Jonas Johansson, TBL (30 saves)