The Tampa Bay Lightning scored four second period goals and got four points from Nikita Kucherov and three points each from Alex Killorn, Mikhail Gucherov, and Brayden Point, en route to an easy 7-1 win over the Boston Bruins in game three of a second round Eastern Conference playoff series at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. The Lightning now lead the best of seven 2-1 with back to back wins.
Boston had the best chance early on in the first period shorthanded when Brad Marchand got to a puck behind the Tampa Bay net and centered one to Patrice Bergeron in the slot, but he was stopped by Andrei Vasilevsikiy. Tampa would strike quickly though later in the first when Nick Ritchie took a bad slashing penalty, and Tuesday nights hero Ondrej Palat fired a slapshot from the top of the right faceoff circle that deflected off the stick of Zdeno Chara and beat Jaroslav Halak at 12:46 to make it 1-0. Just 15 seconds later Yanni Gourde broke in down the right wing and Boston defenseman Jeremy Lauzon tried to cut him off but collided with the linesman, allowing Gourde in on Halak alone beating the goaltender with a right to left deke move to extend the lead to 2-0 where it stood after the opening 20.
Another early second period penalty to Patrice Bergeron for high sticking led to a 3-0 Lightning advantage. Kucherov got a pass out to Sergachev who hammed one in on a slapshot from the left point at 2:14. Marchand responded to get the Bruins on the board on their own powerplay at 4:56. Marchand standing to left of Vasilevskiy deflected a David Pastrnak pass-shot from the right in with his skates to cut it to 3-1. It was the seventh of the playoffs and fourth of the series for the Boston winger. Tampa Bay took back their three goal lead on their third straight successful powerplay almost four minutes later. Kucherov got a shot in close on Halak from the bottom of the right faceoff circle that wasn’t handled cleanly, and Killorn banged home the rebound in front at 8:35. About three minutes later on the next stoppage of play, Halaks night came to an end as rookie Dan Vladar came in to play in goal in his NHL debut. The Lightning continued to pour it on when Point broke in alone on Vlader and made a beautiful left to right deke point faking a backhander and moving it to his forehand to make it 5-1 at 15:23. Killorn got his second of the night unassisted at 18:51 to end the disaster of a middle period for the Bruins.
Point made another nice play in the third making a behind the back pass finding Kucherov streaking down the slot, and Kucherov one handed a shot past Vlader at 3:58 to end the scoring on the night.
Halak had 12 saves on 16 shots, while Vlader stopped 12 of 15 in the loss in net. Pastrnak and Torey Krug each had an assist on the lone Marchand goal. It is the worst lopsided loss in a playoff game for Boston since a 9-3 loss to Buffalo in 1992. Kucherov finished with a goal and three assists, Killorn two goals and an assist, while Point and Gucherov had one goal and two assists each. Vasilevskiy had 23 saves for the win in goal. The netminder became the winningest goalie in Tampa Bay playoff history with his 22nd victory in the game two win. The Bruins were 1-3 on the powerplay, while the Lightning went 3-6. Game four is scheduled for a 7:30 faceoff Friday night.
