Ondrej Palat scored two early goals, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves on 29 shots to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins in game three of an NHL second round series at TD Garden in Boston Wednesday night. Tampa now leads the best of seven series 2-1.
Palat opened the scoring just 1:47 in after a Bruins turnover to make it 1-0. Just 1:32 later, Palat buried his second of the night and fourth of the playoffs to give the Lightning an early 2-0, stunning the home crowd. Patrice Bergeron got Bostons only goal of the night at 14:12 on the powerplay to cut it to 2-1 and finally igniting the Garden. But it was short lived, as 2:31 after the Bergeron marker Anthony Cirelli got his first playoff goal to regain a two goal lead 3-1.
Steven Stamkos would finish off the scoring when he put one into the empty net at 19:18 of the third, also on the powerplay. It was the first point for Stamkos in his last 15 games.
Tuuka Rask made 33 saves in the loss for Boston, as the Bruins were 1-1 on the powerplay. Victor Hedman added two assists for Tampa Bay, as they were 1-5 with the extra man.
Game four will be at TD Garden on Friday night at 7 pm.
