BOSTON _ Some nights, he just might be the best player the Tampa Bay Lightning has.
No, he doesn't score as often as Nikita Kucherov. No, he's nowhere near as famous or popular as Steven Stamkos. No, he doesn't get nearly the attention as goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
But make no mistake. Ondrej Palat is a big reason why the Lightning is where they are right now.
And where are they? Halfway to reaching the Eastern Conference final after going into their personal house of horrors and beating the Bruins, 4-1, Wednesday night to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Palat has been a major factor in the team's success over the past few seasons. And his fingerprints were all over Game 3. He scored a pair of goals in the first 3:41 to spark the Lightning victory that has given Tampa Bay back the home-ice advantage it lost.
While certainly this series remains far from over, the Lightning have pretty much erased any of the ominous doubts one might have had after Boston's dominating Game 1 victory.
For two games now, the Lightning have been the better team and Palat is the epitome of that.
He doesn't get rattled. He plays well in his own zone. He makes solid hits. He takes hits to make plays. He scores timely goals.
That, in a nutshell, is what the Lightning have done the past two games. No one does it better than Palat.
The Lightning could not have dreamed for a better start. Two goals in the first 3:41, both Palat. One off a pretty feed by Tyler Johnson, who is becoming the Lightning's most clutch player in these playoffs. That goal came only 1:47 into the game.
Palat's second goal, and his fourth of the playoffs, came off a deflection of a Victor Hedman shot from the point.
The goals pumped life and confidence into the Lightning and certainly sucked the air out of Boston's sellout crowd. That's just what the Lightning needed playing in a joint that has never been very kind to it. Just nine wins in 54 all-time games.
Make it 10 now.
Not that it was all easy.
That crowd deflated by Palat's early two goals gained some of that spirit back when Patrice Bergeron cut the Lightning lead to 2-1 with a power-play goal with 5:48 left in the period.
But the Lightning, again, took the air out of TD Garden when sensational rookie Tony Cirelli picked up his first goal of the playoffs. This after already drawing two penalties against the Bruins earlier in the period.
Then they put the Bruins into a sleeper hold, stifling the Bruins for two periods, all while withstanding Boston's attempts to draw Tampa Bay into a street feet.
The Lightning kept their cool and showed their composure to put the clamps down on the victory.
Thanks to a total team effort, you almost forgot about Palat's contribution. But that's kind of the way it always is with Palat.
Often you don't notice him until he's not there. The Lightning found that out the hard way when Palat missed two months with an ankle injury. Because of it, he had career lows in goals (11) and assists (24) in only 56 games.
And while the Lightning plugged along without him, everyone inside the organization will tell you just how valuable he is to the team.
Three seasons ago, he was a part of, perhaps, the best line in hockey known as the Triplets along with Kucherov and Johnson. This season, a third of this year's version of the Triplets along with Johnson and Brayden Point.
The trio shut down New Jersey's Taylor Hall in the first round of the playoffs, and has outplayed Boston's monster line of Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak after being scorched for three goals and eight assists in the Game 1 loss.
Because of that, the Lightning now have a leg up in the series with Game 4 set for Thursday night in Boston.
Suddenly that game is not as critical. Even a loss sends the Lightning back home with the series tied and home-ice advantage. And a victory Friday puts Tampa Bay in command.
Either way, Palat will be there. He always is.
