Ondrej Palat scored two goals and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves Saturday afternoon as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Boston Bruins 3-1 in game four of an NHL second round Eastern Conference playoff series at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Tampa now leads the best of seven 3-1.
Boston carried the play early with a 6-2 advantage on shots, but had nothing to show for it. The best chance came on a one timer by Brandon Carlo that was turned away by the pad of Vasilevskiy. Later in the period Bruins goalie Jaroslav Halak also made a big save when he stopped a two on one breakout when Brayden Point sent one over to Nikita Kucherov. Kucherovs one timer was turned away with a beautiful stick save by Halak. The Lightning did take the lead though at 8:59. Point found an open Palat in the slot and Palat fired one in that made it 1-0. It was a bad job by the Boston defense as four players were within two or three feet of Palat but didn’t pick him up. Tampa Bay had the only two powerplays in the opening 20 but couldn’t convert on either one as the shots on goal ended up 9-8 Bruins.
Boston had several chances on the powerplay early in the second as Tampa Bay got a penalty at the 20 minute mark of the first. Patrice Bergeron had a good look from the slot that he fired wide, and David Pastrnak set up David Krejci for a one timer that hit the side of the net. Joakim Nordstrom also found a loose puck in the slot after a Bruins rush just over four minutes in that he couldn’t push into the net past Vasilevskiy. The Lightning then had another powerplay chance but couldn’t convert. Cedric Paquette just over nine minutes into the period fired one off the crossbar behind Halak on a rush just coming off the bench. At the 11:41 mark, Brad Marchand found Carlo with a perfect lead pass for a partial breakaway but Vasilevskiy again made a save to protect the lead. Palats second of the day made it 2-0 with a slapshot from the high slot, beating Halak glove side at 12:29. Bostons Nick Ritchie was called for a major five minute boarding penalty at 13:32, and the Lightning made it 3-0 when Victor Hedman took a shot that was blocked by Par Lindholm and fluttered past Halak at 18:04 near the end of that powerplay chance. The Bruins would have 1:03 of powerplay time to begin the third period after a late call to Tampa at 19:03.
Tampa Bay had a breakaway shorthanded by Blake Coleman early in the third that was stopped, as he then committed a tripping penalty on the other end that led to a very abbreviated 10 second 5 on 3 powerplay for Boston. Pastrnak had the best chance when a rebound came right to him in the left faceoff circle, but he fired it wide of a half empty net. The Bruins finally converted on a powerplay when Charlie Coyle found Jake Debrusk, who released a quick shot into the net from the bottom of the right faceoff circle at 7:04 to cut it to 3-1. Coleman had a another partial breakaway with just over eight minutes left that couldn’t be converted, and Boston had two more good looks on the other end about 1:30 later including a Ondrej Case chance off a Debrusk feed that was stopped by the pad of Vasilevskiy. The Bruins pulled Halak with about 2:15 left but never could come up with any other Grade A chances, as the Lightning are now one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Halak made 23 saves in the loss, and Matt Grzelcyk joined Coyle with an assist on the Debrusk goal. Palat had the two goals for Tampa in the win, while Kucherov added two assists. The Lightning have now scored 13 of the last 16 goals in the series. Boston was 1-4 on the powerplay, while Tampa Bay went 1-5. The Bruins will be in win or go home mode from here on out having to win three straight games to steal the series. Game five faces off Monday night at 7 p.m.
