The Tampa Lightning bounced back from a game one loss at home Monday night, by holding on the defeat the Boston Bruins 4-2 in game two of an NHL second round series at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The best of seven series is now tied 1-1.
Tampa Bay came out strong after being drubbed 6-2 by Boston in game one. The Lightning had the first 10 shots of the game on goal and a pair of powerplays, the second of which Yanni Gourde scored his second goal of the playoffs at 11:47 to make it 1-0 Tampa. Boston had a five on three powerplay advantage in the period, but couldn’t cash in. The Bruins were held without a shot on net for the first 14 minutes. Charlie McAvoy however was able to tie the game at 18:30, taking a perfect feed from Patrice Bergeron in stride between the two faceoff circles to make it 1-1. It was McAvoys first goal of the playoffs.
Tyler Johnson regained the lead for the home town Lightning with his third marker of the playoffs at 10:14 of the second to make it 2-1.
Down a goal headed into the third, the Bruins were hoping for another big 20 minutes where they had played their best over the previous two games. Boston had outscored Toronto in game seven of first round, and Tampa in game one by a combined 7-0 in the third period, but the Lightning wouldn’t allow it on this night. Tampa had a great chance with a four minute powerplay with 12:30 left, but were turned away, including a great pad save by goalie Tuuka Rask after a Zdeno Chara turnover. Later in the period, a turnover by Brad Marchand at his own blue line allowed Brayden Point to set up Ondrej Palat who beat Rask stick side just outside the left faceoff circle at 14:08 to make it 3-1. Boston fought back as Torey Krug snuck one past Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy from the right wing boards at 15:58 to cut it to 3-2. Boston would pull Rask for an extra attacker with 1:45 to go and put the pressure on Tampa, but Point scooped up a loose puck and found the empty net with 25 seconds left to end it.
Point was the big point producer on the night, with the empty net goal and adding three assists for Tampa. Vasilevskiy made 18 saves, and the Lightning were 1-4 on the powerplay. Marchand had two assists for Boston, and Rask ended with 27 saves. The Bruins were 0-3 with the extra man.
Game three will be at TD Garden in Boston Wednesday night at 7 pm.
