Final: Lightning 6, Bruins 5 (F/SO) - Bruins lose 5-1 lead spending 25 minutes in penalty box

The Boston Bruins fall to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 6-5 shootout loss at Raymond James Stadium.

Tonight saw a lot of action in the NHL's annual Stadium Series event. Despite a significant early lead from the Bruins, Boston's biggest flaw became  came back to bite them.

11 seconds into the game, Tampa Bay's Brandon Hagel put the Lightning on the board setting the Bruins at an early disadvantage.

However, the Bruins responded with three consecutive goals through the first period.

Alex Steeves started the scoring midway through the period. Michael Eyssimont kept the puck in Boston's offensive zone and found Steeves in the slot to tie the game.

Four minutes later, Morgan Geekie gave Boston the lead tipping a Charlie McAvoy shot into the back of the net.

At the late stages of the first period, the Bruins went on the power play, and Viktor Arvidsson scored Boston's third goal with another shot from McAvoy.

In the second period, Boston continued their offensive momentum with back-to-back goals. 

In his second game back with the Bruins, Matthew Poitras lifted a backhand goal past Andre Vasilevskiy, and Geekie followed six minutes later with an odd-man-rush one timer goal. These two goals gave the Bruins a 5-1 lead midway through the game.

But then the game started to get out of hand. The Bruins received their first penalty on a roughing call by McAvoy, and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored for the Lightning on the power play.

The Bruins then recorded five consecutive minor penalties, spending a good chunk of the second period on a 5-on-3 penalty kill. At one point, the Bruins had four players in the penalty box.

Tampa Bay then went on to scored back-to-back power play goals bringing them back to a one goal deficit.

The Bruins just needed to preserve a one goal lead for the remainder of the game, but they struggled against a swarm of Tampa Bay shots. Going into the first period, the Bruins outshot Tampa Bay 21-10, but by the third period, the Lightning had more shots on net.

With eight minutes remaining in the game, Nikita Kucherov tied the game with a shot from the left face-off dot, and the game went into overtime.

In overtime, the Bruins received two minor penalty calls. 22 seconds into overtime, David Pastrnak was called for a slash which turned into controversy. Before the penalty, Pastrnak scored what looked to be the game winning goal, but a late whistle waived off the goal and sent Pastrnak to the penalty box.

The Bruins and Swayman successfully killed both Pastrnak and Hampus Lindholm's penalties, and the game then went into a shootout. In total, Swayman stopped 41 of 46 shots on net including a breakaway shot against Kucherov in overtime.

In the shootout, both teams started 0/2 on shot attempts. Jake Guentzel was the third shooter for Tampa Bay, and he lifted a shot past the left shoulder of Swayman to put the Lightning in front.

Pastrnak had the game on his stick, but he failed to extend the shootout, as his shot hit off the crossbar to give the Lightning the extra point in the contest.

Tonight's Stadium Series game provided a lot of entertainment, including the first goalie fight in an outdoor game. In the middle of the second period, Hagel speared Swayman after a shot on net, and Boston's goaltender unleashed his anger. Swayman began wailing punches on Hagel, which prompted Vasilevskiy to skate out of his crease and fight Swayman.

Overall, this was a frustrating game for Boston. Despite picking up one point, losing a 5-1 lead stings. There were a lot of controversial calls on behalf of Boston, but it's nearly impossible to win a game after spending over a period in the penalty box. 

On Wednesday, the Bruins will play their final game before Olympics as they take on the Panthers in Sunrise. Puck drop will be at 7 p.m.

______________________________

WHO: Bruins (32-20-3) at Lightning (34-14-4)
WHEN: 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa Bay
TV: ESPN
RADIO: 98.5-FM The Sports Hub

PROJECTED LINES

Boston

Geekie - Khusnutdinov - Pastrnak

Mittelstadt - Minten - Arvidsson

Jeannot - Poitras - Kastelic

Steeves - Kuraly - Eyssimont

Aspirot - McAvoy

H. Lindholm - Lohrei

Zadorov - Peeke

Swayman

Korpisalo

Tampa Bay

Hagel - Cirelli - Kucherov

Guentzel - James - Goncalves

Giregensons - Gourde - Holmberg

Bjorkstrand - Paul - Finley

Moser - Raddysh

McDonagh - Cernak

Carlile - Crozier

Vasilevskiy

Johansson

PREGAME NOTES

The Boston Bruins take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL's annual Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium.

The Bruins arrived to Raymond James Stadium in Patriots outfits as part of a tradition teams do before outdoor NHL games.

Frasier Minten was named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month on Sunday.

Boston will be without Pavel Zacha and Elias Lindholm in this game.\