The Bruins played well for 20 minutes on Saturday and looked determined to get back on the winning track. Against a lesser team and lesser goaltender, that might have been enough. Maybe even on Thursday when they played a shorthanded Florida Panthers team.<\/p>\n
But Andrei Vasilevskiy (22 saves) stood tall when the Bruins controlled the game and the Tampa Bay Lightning scored three unanswered goals in the third period to beat the Bruins, 3-1.<\/p>\n
It is the first time the B\u2019s have suffered consecutive regulation losses since Dec. 21 and 23 and was the first time the B\u2019s suffered a regulation loss after taking a lead into the third (31-1-4). The B\u2019s, outshot 10-3 in the third, also went 0-for-4 on the power play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a few chances (in the second period), even in the first but I also thought the power play needed to step up. It didn\u2019t really give us a lot of Grade A chances,\u201d coach Marco Sturm told NESN. \u201cBut we were fine though. We were still good enough today but, again, those little details now, they matter and those details have been hurting us for two games in a row now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bruins took a 1-0 lead into the third period but it didn\u2019t last long. The B\u2019s got caught deep in the Lightning zone and allowed the Bolts to break out with numbers. Jeremy Swayman (19 saves) made the first stop and then Andrew Peeke\u2019s desperate clear attempt went right to Charle-Edouard D\u2019astous, who scored off his own rebound at 2:13.<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s got their fourth power play of the game at 4:31 on a D\u2019Astous cross-check but they came up empty for the fourth time.<\/p>\n
With the B\u2019s generating little offense, the Bolts took their first lead of the game on a rare soft goal by Swayman with 5:31 left in the third. Darren Raddysh carried the puck deep and, without options, he threw it on net. It hit Swayman\u2019s far arm and dropped in behind him.<\/p>\n
Swayman, whose has gotten a total of two goals of run support in these first two games of the road trip, chose to accentuate the positive when asked about the goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny 2-1 game, you\u2019re going to get goals that are magnified,\u201d Swayman told reporters in Tampa. \u201cIt\u2019s our job to move forward and really take positives. A lot of great things came out of tonight\u2019s game, so that\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nikita Kucherov finished it off with an empty net goal.<\/p>\n
Before the puck even dropped, it was a fairly eventful afternoon in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Two of the four teams that started the day six points behind the B\u2019s, Detroit and Ottawa, both lost in regulation. The Red Wings\u2019 lifeless loss to the Rangers also clinched playoff spots for the Lightning and Buffalo Sabres, who snapped a 14-year post-season drought.<\/p>\n
Whether or not the knowledge that they had secured a playoff spot affected Tampa\u2019s play early on, the B\u2019s were the better team in the first two periods.<\/p>\n
The Bruins had a chance to take the first lead of the game midway through the first period. Pavel Zacha\u2019s shot from the right wing broke through Andrei Vasilevskiy and sat tantalizingly in the crease behind. Charlie McAvoy appeared to have a sure tap-in goal but Raddysh hooked him and kept him from pushing it over the line. Raddysh took a penalty on the play but it was well worth it. The Bolts were able to kill it off, even though a clock malfunction appeared to give the B\u2019s a couple more seconds than the usual two-minute advantage.<\/p>\n
When the officials spotted it, it created a lengthy stoppage to get the time right.<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s got one more power play late in the first but could not cash in then, either.<\/p>\n
Shots were even at 8-8 in the first.<\/p>\n
The again had another great chance three minutes into the second when Casey Mittelstadt sprung the B\u2019s for an odd-man rush. Zacha then sent Viktor Arvidsson in alone but Vasilevskiy got a glove on Arvidsson\u2019s backhander.<\/p>\n
But the B\u2019s finally broke the at 6:47 of the second on play that was equal parts pretty and hard-working. McAvoy carried the puck over the line and lost it with what he felt was an uncalled hook, but the B\u2019s maintained possession and outworked the Lightning for several pucks. Eventually, Arvidsson found Mittelstadt steaming down the middle of the ice and Mittelstadt buried a wrist shot over Vasilevskiy\u2019s blocker.<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s kept up the pressure. Vasilevskiy stoned Jordan Harris right in front of the net then, on the same shift, Nikita Zadorov clanged the post on a shot from distance.<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s got their third power play but again could not capitalize. With 11 minutes gone in the period, the B\u2019s were holding a 10-1 shot advantage in the period but the lead remained one goal.<\/p>\n
Fraser Minten gave the Bolts their first power play when David Pastrnak was rushing the puck and Minten could not get out of Pontus Holmberg\u2019s way on the blue line, taking an interference. But the B\u2019s were able to kill it off, thanks to a very good blocker save by Swayman on Oliver Bjorkstrand.<\/p>\n
Slowly, Tampa started to warm to the game. They kept the B\u2019s hemmed in their end for much of the final three minutes of the period. Swayman\u2019s best stop came when he gave up a big rebound and it went right to Nick Paul. He circled to Swayman\u2019s left but could not lift his shot over the netminder\u2019s glove.<\/p>\n
The B\u2019s had 20 minutes to secure a victory over the Bolts. But the final three minutes of the second were a sign of things to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bruins played well for 20 minutes on Saturday and looked determined to get back on the winning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[31209,99443,99444,5691,135,862,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-219151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-bruins","9":"tag-casey-mittelstadt","10":"tag-jeremy-swayman","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-tampa","13":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","14":"tag-tampa-headlines","15":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}