TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning have played numerous important games against Boston, and while they might not be the most natural rivals, Tampa Bay surely sees the regular-season matchups with the Bruins as benchmark games.
“There’s never a free pass,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said before Saturday’s game at Amalie Arena. “The games are tough. And you kind of learn a little bit about your team when you play these guys.”
Boston ran out to a three-goal lead, scoring their first two goals — both by Bruins forward David Pastrnak — in the first six minutes, forcing the Lightning to chase. Tampa Bay rallied with two goals in the third but ultimately lost, 5-2.
In their first meeting, in Boston on Dec. 4, the Lightning escaped with a 3-2 overtime win at the TD Garden. On Saturday, the Bruins made sure they didn’t give away two points.
Just 71 seconds into Saturday’s game, Pastrnak flicked a shot from just inside the blue line that hit off defenseman Andrej Sustr’s skate and past goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy just inside the left post.
The Lightning couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone on a line change, and Taylor Hall’s slap shot from the left circle was stopped by Vasilevskiy. But the rebound found Pastrnak, who had an open net to put the Bruins up 2-0 just 6:10 into the game.
The Lightning played without stalwart defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who took a puck to the right leg in Thursday’s game. That forced them to shuffle their defensive pairings and made some play in unfamiliar positions.
Boston’s game plan was to pressure the Lightning defensemen as they entered the Bruins zone. In doing so, they took away passing lanes and prevented the Lightning from getting any sustained offensive-zone time.
Brad Marchand scored 24 seconds into the second period for a 3-0 Bruins lead. Boston’s forecheck, which gave the Lightning’s defensemen headaches all game, made it 4-0 when Oskar Steen forced a Cal Foote turnover in the Lightning zone and fed Anton Blidh, who shot through a screen on Vasilevskiy.
The Lightning’s Ondrej Palat scored his 14th goal of the season 24 seconds into the third, set up by a heady pass from defenseman Erik Cernak playing up in the zone. Brayden Point made it 4-2 with 8:40 left, rifling a wrister from the top of the left circle that beat goaltended Linus Ullmark top shelf.
After cutting the lead to two, the Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker on the power play, but Brad Marchand scored an empty-net goal with 2:49 left. The Lightning were 0 for 4 on the power play, including a 47-second 5 on 3 in the second period.
Vasilevskiy, who had allowed four or more goals just twice in his first 24 games this season, has allowed four in two of his past four outings since returning from COVID-19 protocol.
