For the fourth time in six seasons, the Lightning will advance to the Eastern Conference finals after defeating the Bruins 3-2 in Game 5 on Monday night. Tampa Bay also is the first team to advance to the conference finals in the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The first period went scoreless after the Lightning couldn't convert on a four-minute power-play opportunity, which came after Boston's Zdeno Chara struck Nikita Kucherov in the face with his stick.
Kucherov left the ice and did not return to play for the last seven minutes of the period. The right-wing was back on the bench for the start of the second, but didn't stay there, as he left again with seven minutes remaining in the second frame.
At the start of the second, Lightning forward Ondrej Palat was able to find the open net for the fourth straight game on a tip from a Kevin Shattenkirk shot. Palat has now tied the franchise record for the longest goal streak in the playoffs at four games. Captain Steven Stamkos was the last to get a four-game goal-streak in the postseason back in 2018.
A careless tripping penalty from Kucherov put the Bruins on the power play, which was converted on the sole power-play goal of the evening.
With fewer than 10 seconds remaining, David Krejci faked a shot from the right, stealing Andrei Vasilevskiy's attention, and instead, passed it to David Pastrnak on the left, who one-timed it past the Vezina finalist for the tie the score at 1-all.
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With less than eight minutes remaining in the third, Victor Hedman took a shot from the blueline and Anthony Cirelli was able to tip it past Boston's Jaroslav Halak for the 2-1 lead. Hedman's assist on the play made him the franchise's all-time assist leader in the postseason with 45.
With 2:33 remaining, Boston's Krejci tied it up _ sending the game into overtime _ with a wide-open shot on the right side as Vasilevskiy guarded the left post.
In the opening overtime, Boston pressed in the Lightning's defensive zone heavily. In the first seven minutes, the Bruins registered six shots on goal and held the Lightning to none. Both teams were held scoreless despite a Lightning power-play opportunity midway through the period.
In the second overtime, Hedman found the open net past Halak on the right side for the winning goal.
The Lightning win gave Vasilevskiy the 21st of his playoff career, tying him for first in the league with Boston's Tuukka Rask and Washington's Braden Holtby since the start of the 2018 postseason.
The Tampa Bay goaltender registered the second-most saves (45) he has made in a game this season, following his 61 against the Blue Jackets in the five-overtime, 3-2 win in Game 1 of the first round. He stopped 12 shots in both overtimes combined Monday.
