Bruins' Season Ended With Double-Overtime Loss To Lightning
BOSTON (CBS) -- The bubble has burst for the Boston Bruins.
Entering Monday night's Game 5 vs. the Lightning facing elimination, the Bruins skated evenly with Tampa for more than 94 minutes, only for Victor Hedman's game-winner in double overtime to officially extinguish Boston's Stanley Cup aspirations.
Hedman fit a shot through traffic, with Patrick Maroon camped out in front of the Boston net, that burrowed its way through Jaroslav Halak to end the game with 5:50 remaining in the second overtime period.
The game went to OT after a goal from David Krejci with 2:33 left in the third period.
After a scoreless overtime period, Hedman finally put an end to the game.
Jaroslav Halak made 32 saves in the loss. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 45 shots for Tampa.
In the third period, Tampa broke a 1-1 tie when Anthony Cirelli drifted to the front of the net off an offensive zone faceoff, where he deadened a Victor Hedman point shot, tipping it just over the stick of Jaroslav Halak with 7:57 left in regulation.
The Lightning took the first lead of the game 4:21 into the second period, when Ondrej Palat tipped a Kevin Shattenkirk blast in the slot. The puck found its way through traffic before pinging off the crossbar and crossing the goal line to give Tampa a 1-0 lead.
The Bruins tied the game eight minutes later, in very familiar fashion, with David Pastrnak blasting a one-timer from the left faceoff dot past a sprawling Vasilevskiy while on the power play. David Krejci picked up the primary assist on the goal, while Patrice Bergeron -- who kept the possession alive -- got the secondary assist.
The game was scoreless after the first period, with the Bruins killing off a double-minor penalty for high sticking by Zdeno Chara, and the Lightning killing off a Barclay Goodrow hooking penalty shortly after their own man advantage expired.
Nikita Kuchverov suffered an injury while taking that high-stick to the head by Chara. The winger immediately went down to the ice and remained there for several moments, eventually skating off the ice and heading straight to the locker room for evaluation. He did not play for the remainder of the period, missing the final 7:12.
Charlie McAvoy suffered an injury in the third period after getting driven dangerously into the boards by Cedric Paquette. No penalty was assessed for the violent collision in the corner.
McAvoy would return later in the third period.
The Bruins were without Sean Kuraly, Chris Wagner and Nick Ritchie, replaced in the lineup by Jack Studnicka, Anders Bjork and Par Lindholm.
The Lightning will now advance to the Eastern Conference finals, waiting to learn the winner of the Flyers-Islanders series.
