BSJ Game Report: Lightning 3, Bruins 1 - Bruins come up short again as Tampa pushes them to brink

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 3-1 loss to the Lightning in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

HEADLINES

Bruins pushed to the brink

The score was not nearly as lopsided as Wednesday’s Game 3 shellacking, but as has been the case since … well, the third period of Game 1 … the Bruins have were once again out-classed by Tampa Bay on Saturday afternoon, with the Bolts holding on for a 3-1 victory in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. 

Just about everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for Boston in this one, with the B's now pushed to the brink with Tampa holding an imposing 3-1 series lead.

Trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes thanks to Ondrej Palat's tally at 8:59 — the byproduct of another careless turnover and plenty of puck watching in Boston's zone — the wheels once again came off for Bruce Cassidy's club in the following period. Despite driving to the net and generate a slew of high-danger looks against Andrei Vasilevskiy (Boston held a 5-0 edge in that category during 5v5 play in the second), it was Tampa that ultimately capitalized.

Any momentum Boston managed to build was quickly negated thanks to Palat's second goal of the afternoon — with Tampa building a lead it would not relinquish after Halak was slow to react to the Tampa winger's shot from the high slot. To make matters worse, Boston spent most of the final minutes of the second killing off a five-minute major from Nick Ritchie — with the power forward drilling Yanni Gourde well after he released the puck in Boston's zone.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1299765973189353473

Even though Boston's PK managed to stand tall for most of the five-minute shorthanded shift, a lucky break gave Tampa a 3-0 lead — with a fluttering puck Halak and into the back of the net with just 28 seconds to go in Ritchie's penalty.

Jake DeBrusk managed to get Boston on the board in the third, but a tight defensive structure from Tampa down the stretch — coupled with some bruuuutal whiffs by Boston's big guns in Grade-A ice — ensured that there would be no rally in store for the B's up in Toronto.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1299775357432860675

Things don't look great now for the Bruins, who now sit just one loss away from packing their bags up in the bubble and closing the book on a campaign with so much promise. Boston, who is 0-23 all-time when trailing 3-1 in a playoff series, has been on the ropes for most of this series against the Lightning — a club that is still without Steven Stamkos and Ryan McDonagh. This series, marketed by many as THE heavyweight bout of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, has been anything but that so far, with Boston outscored 11-2 over the last seven periods of play.

TWO UP

Penalty kill: Yes, Tampa tallied their third goal of the evening on the man advantage, but that was more a fortuitous bounce than the fault of a PK group that managed to bounce back from a brutal Game 3 showing in which the Bolts buried three of their six changes against the B’s. With Boston focusing more of its efforts on pressuring Nikita Kucherov and keeping the puck off his stick, Tampa failed to generate the type of high-danger looks it generated with ease on Wednesday night. 

Jake DeBrusk: DeBrusk was the lone Bruin to break through on offense Saturday, with the winger snapping a puck past a screened Vasilevskiy at 7:04 in the third period.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1299777530552111106

THREE  DOWN: 

Nick Ritchie: Just a brutal, brutal game for the B’s deadline pickup. With Boston looking to tread water down 2-0 in the second, Ritchie put an end to any momentum that his club was able to generate in the frame thanks to his ill-timed, undisciplined and dangerous hit on Gourde.  Along with relinquishing a goal during that five-minute major (a fluke goal, to be fair), Boston wasted a major chunk of that period exerting precious energy defending in their own end. Can't make decisions like that — especially given the stakes

Jaroslav Halak: In a series that was already expected to have razor-thin margins, the Bruins were going to need their new No. 1 goalie in Jaroslav Halak to be at his absolute best in order to have a fighter’s chance in this series. 

But such hasn’t been the case — with the B’s netminder relinquishing a brutal goal in each of Boston’s first four games of this series. Ondrej Palat’s second goal of the afternoon on Saturday was a back-breaker, with the Czech product lighting the lamp after sailing the puck past Halak’s slow-reacting glove. 

The timing of the goal was less than ideal, given that Boston was putting together a pretty sustained push and driving to the net against Vasilevskiy in what was a 1-0 game at the time.

Fourth Line: A B’s fourth line without Sean Kuraly was once again put on the ropes for most of Saturday’s game — highlighted by that crew puck watching as Point put together a passing clinic and fed Palat for a far-too-easy tally in the first period. Just a brutal sequence here, which started with a careless neutral-zone turnover by Chris Wagner.  Both Wagner and Lindholm did not see the ice for the entire third period. 

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1299748894172217344

PLAY OF THE GAME

Ritchie's five-minute major might have shut the window on a B's comeback, but this soft goal allowed by Halak was really the backbreaker.

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1299765043752509440

PARTING THOUGHTS

Anyone miss this guy these days? 

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1299766995093774337

QUOTE OF THE AFTERNOON

"We gotta get these shots through. There's no excuse for it." - a very irritated David Krejci postgame.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins and Lightning will meet again on Monday night for Game 5 of the best-of-seven series. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m.