Final: Lightning 4, Bruins 3 - Bruins lose first game of season to Lightning

The Boston Bruins lose their first game of the season to the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3.

The Lightning entered this game looking to pick up their first win of the season, and self-inflicted wounds from the Bruins gave them a significant lead to start the game.

In the first period, the Lightning scored their first two goals on poor transition plays by the Bruins. Charlie McAvoy turned over the puck on Boston's own blue line a minute into the period, and Anthony Cerelli gave Tampa Bay the early lead.

Much of the same happened later in the period. As the Bruins struggled to breakout the puck in their defensive zone, Cerelli was left open near the left post and delivered a shot past Joonas Korpisalo for his second goal of the period.

Boston's defensive zone struggles continued at the beginning of the second period. The Lightning shot back a puck into Boston's zone from the blue line, and Pontus Holmberg found Yanni Gourde in front of the net to make it 3-0.

Down three goals, the Bruins responded quickly with a transition goal from Casey Mittelstadt to put them on the board.

However, two minutes later, Holmberg brought Tampa Bay's lead back to three goals.

The Bruins responded agains with a goal from Jordan Harris, his first as a Bruin. Harris picked up the puck and found himself on a two-on-one situation, and he fired a shot past Jonas Johansson to give the Bruins life.

After consecutive penalties by the Lightning, Morgan Geekie brought the Bruins within one goal. Elias Lindholm won a face-off draw in Tampa Bay's zone, and Geekie scored on the designed play.

Boston now had a full period to possibly tie this game, but they couldn't get anything done. The Bruins applied the pressure against Johansson through the final 20 minutes of the game, but strong defense from Tampa Bay kept the game scoreless. Boston had a five-on-three chance at the end of the period to tie the game, but nothing materialized, resulting in their first loss of the season.

The mistakes made by the Bruins early in this game made it hard for them to complete a comeback. Poor breakouts and costly turnovers from Boston's defensemen resulted in easy opportunities that the Lightning capitalized on. Despite being hung out to dry on multiple shots, Korpisalo made good saves to keep the Bruins in the game until the final buzzer.

Boston will be off the next two games as they travel cross-country to face the Vegas Golden Knights. Puck drop will be at 10 p.m. on Thursday.

______________________________

WHO: Bruins (3-0-0) vs Lightning (0-2-0)
WHEN: 1 p.m.
WHERE: TD Garden, Boston
TV: NESN
RADIO: 98.5-FM The Sports Hub

LIVE BOX SCORE

PROJECTED LINES

Boston

Geekie - Lindholm - Pastrnak

Zacha - Mittelstadt - Arvidsson

Jeannot - Minten - Eyssimont

Khusnutdinov - Kuraly - Kastelic

Lohrei - McAvoy

Zadorov - Jokiharju

Harris - Peeke

Swayman

Korpisalo

Lightning

Hagel - Point - Kucherov

Guentzel - Cirelli - Gourde

Gonvalves - Geekie - Bjorkstrand

Holmberg - Finley - Chaffee

Hedman - Raddysh

McDonagh - Cernak

Lilleberg - Crozier

Johansson

Vasilevskiy

PREGAME NOTES

The Boston Bruins wrap uo their early homestead with a Monday-afternoon matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Hampus Lindholm didn’t participate in practice with the Bruins on Sunday, per MassLive. Lindholm did skate before the team's morning skate.

Lindholm is dealing with a lower body injury, but it's unclear when the defenseman was injured or what the injury is.

Fabian Lysell scored his first career hat trick in Providence during their home opener against the Charlotte Checkers on Sunday.