ST. PETERSBURG, FL- Brad Marchand took a beautiful feed in overtime from captain and teammate Patrice Bergeron to bury his 34th goal of the season to lead the Boston Bruins to a 1-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Saint Pete Times Forum Tuesday night.
Both goaltenders were red hot as the two teams battled for first place in the Atlantic Division. Jonas Gustavsson was in net for Boston and former Maine Black Bear Ben Bishop was in between the pipes for Tampa Bay.
Neither would budge throughout regulation but both teams had plenty of chances. Marchand had a second period breakaway that was turned away by Bishop and the Lightning put 19 shots in the second period on Gustavsson but Tampa couldn’t solve the Bruins backup goalie.
Tampa had a powerplay chance with 9:31 left in regulation but again would come up empty. The Bruins did not have a powerplay chance in the game while Tampa was 0 for 4. The Bruins were outshot in the game 42-33 as Rask finished with the 42 saves while Bishop finished with 32.
The only shot in overtime came when Torey Krug would make a perfect pass up the right wing to Bergeron. Bergeron would find Marchand streaking up the left wing and down the slot, having beat his defender. Marchand would one time the puck past a fallen Bishop just 10 seconds into the overtime for the win.
With the overtime victory and a victory last night in overtime at Florida, Boston is now in a tie for first place with Tampa Bay as each team now has 83 points. Boston is now 38-23-7 and Tampa is 39-23-5.
Tampa Bay will host Philadelphia on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in their next contest while Boston returns home for a Thursday night home tilt against Carolina at 7 p.m.
