BSJ Game Report: Lightning 5, Bruins 3 - Early deficit dooms Boston in wild bout at TD Garden

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 5-3 loss to the Lightning in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

HEADLINES

A sign of things to come: So, where do we start with this one? A raucous TD Garden crowd got a firsthand look at what could be the premier heavyweight bout this postseason on Saturday night, with the Lightning ultimately besting the Bruins by a final of 5-3. Things got off to an awful start for the B’s, who saw their win streak snapped at four games and their lead at the top of the Atlantic Division trimmed to seven points. Boston might have been gifted with a power-play opportunity just 5:01 into the game (the first two of what was 94 total penalty minutes on the night), but it was the Bolts that capitalized — with Anthony Cirelli and Mikhail Sergachev beating Tuukka Rask just 1:02 apart to hand Tampa an early two-goal lead off of a dominant PK sequence. The visitors added to their lead in the second frame, with an unguarded Cedric Paquette snapping one past Rask at 6:50 to make it a 3-0 contest, but Charlie McAvoy give the B’s life eight minutes later, burying one past Andrei Vasilevskiy during 4v4 play to cut the deficit to two.

What followed was a two-minute frenzy to close out the period, in which: 

Zdeno Chara launched Sergachev’s stick into orbit:

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1236466505837092864

Sean Kuraly buried a goal from the crease that was initially waved off by the officials: 

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1236467097561116672

Nine total penalties, including five misconducts, were handed out after Cirelli cross-checked Chara in the back, starting three separate brawls on the ice — and a slew of other kerfuffles.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1236467840091291649

A slashing penalty assessed against Brad Marchand after time expired in the second did prove to be costly, as Tampa opened the final stretch of regulation with a power-play tally from Alex Killorn at 1:08 in the third— making it a 4-2 contest.

Boston once again countered off of David Pastrnak’s 48th goal of the season at 6:37, but that was all that Bruce Cassidy’s club was able to muster — as Nikita Kucherov snuffed out any hope of a rally off of an empty-net strike with 1:02 left on the clock. 

TWO UP

Charlie McAvoy: McAvoy is doing his damndest to insert himself into the Rocket Richard Trophy race. All kidding aside, McAvoy continued his torrid scoring stretch on Saturday night, scoring his fifth goal in his last 15 games to put Boston on the board at 14:50 in the second. McAvoy logged a team-high 25:45 of ice time in the loss, more than three minutes more than any other B’s skater. 

Sean Kuraly: Kuraly picked a good time to snap his 13-game goalless stretch, knocking a puck past Vasilevskiy in a scrum down low to cut Boston’s deficit to one in the closing minutes of the second period. In Kuraly’s 12:01 of 5v5 ice time, Boston held a 10-1 edge in shots on goal. 

FOUR DOWN

Power play: Just about any momentum that Boston carried into tonight’s matchup was sucked out of TD Garden thanks to that putrid opening power play — with Tampa’s shorthanded barrage putting the B’s behind the eight-ball right from the start. Pastrnak eventually cashed in during 5v4 play later in the game, but Boston’s special-teams unit was largely a dud in this one. 

Tuukka Rask: Boston’s brutal opening power play was a multi-faceted disaster, but Rask certainly didn’t help Boston by relinquishing goals on both of Tampa’s first two shots of the night. It was a backbreaker right off the bat for Boston, given that the B’s actually held a commanding 18-7 edge in 5v5 shot attempts during the first period. 

John Moore: With Brandon Carlo out of the lineup for the time being due to an upper-body injury, Moore slotted back into Boston’s D corps and struggled to get back up to speed in his first taste of action since Feb. 12. Moore was caught way out of position on Paquette’s tally, with the Bolts pivot snapping one past Rask to give Tampa a 3-0 lead. 

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1236461627408617478

Brad Marchand: Tampa managed to capitalize against Boston’s top line for most of the night (both Marchand and Pastrnak were -4 in the loss), but Marchand also put Boston in a bad spot at the end of the second period with his slashing call against Blake Coleman — a penalty after time expired that eventually led to Killorn’s game-winner in the third period. 

PLAY OF THE GAME

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1236478168086781952

PARTING THOUGHT

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1236475950830891008

LOOKING AHEAD

In what has been a recurring trend so far this month, the Bruins will once again head out on the road for their next matchup — with the B’s set to battle the red-hot Flyers on Tuesday night. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.