Dan Girardi scored 3:18 into overtime Friday night, as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 in game four of an NHL second round series before a soldout TD Garden in Boston. Tampa now leads the best of seven series 3-1, with three straight wins after a game one loss.
Tampa once again got off to a fast start, as Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov scored 5:17 apart in the first to make it 2-0 Lightning. David Pastrnak got one back for Boston on a great play. Pastrnak knocked a deflected centering pass out of the air and into the back of the net at 15:28 on the powerplay to cut it to 2-1.
Patrice Bergeron got the Bruins even, scoring on the powerplay at 2:04 of the middle period to make it 2-2. Bergeron was at it again in the third, this time shorthanded. Bergeron deflected a centering pass from Brad Marchand into the upper left corner of the net at 6:36 of the third to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead, and send the Garden crowd into a frenzy. It was the first lead for Boston since a game one win. On a controversional non-call, Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy clearly looked to be tripped up, and the puck made it to the stick of Steven Stamkos who slapped home the tying goal for Tampa at 12:56. After some pressure in overtime by Boston, Girardi was in right place at right time getting a piece of a shot and sending it past Bruins goalie Tuuka Rask.
Marchand and Torey Krug had a pair of assists for Boston. Krug left in the second period and didn’t return after an odd fall into the end boards and was favoring his ankle. Rask finished with 24 saves, and the Bruins were 2-4 on the powerplay. Stamkos added an assist to go along with his tying goal for Tampa. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves, as the Lightning were 1-4 with the extra man.
Game five will be Sunday at 3 pm at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida as the Bruins try to stave off elimination.
