Lightning Coach Jon Cooper Incensed By Bruins' Goal, Lightning's Disallowed Goal Early In Game 2
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice Tuesday night looking to avenge their Game 1 loss to the Bruins. Within minutes, though, that determination gave way to a wee bit of frustration, thanks to two game-altering events in the first five minutes of the game.
The first moment was an allowed goal, and the other was a goal taken off the board.
The first instance came after Anders Bjork missed wide on a 2-on-1 rush, which came after Zach Bogosian turned the puck over at the offensive blue line when his stick snapped in half. Charlie Coyle retrieved Bjork's missed shot and stuff it into Andrei Vasilevskiy's pads. The goaltender did have the puck covered for a brief moment, but neither neither referee -- Gord Dwyer and Jean Hebert wore the stripes for this one -- blew a whistle.
With a scramble ensuing in the crease, Vasilevskiy lifted his right pad ever so slightly, allowing the puck to trickle through his legs and across the goal line.
The call on the ice was a good goal, and though Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper expressed his dismay with the officials' lack of whistle, he opted to not challenge for goaltender interference.
That goal came just 3:14 into the game, but rather than let it get the best of them, the Lightning answered with a goal of their own.
This one came off a point shot by Braydon Coburn that was deflected by Barclay Goodrow in front of the net. The shot got past Jaroslav Halak, and just 1:50 after falling behind 1-0, the Lightning tied the game.
But rather quickly, Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy challenged the play for offside. Replay showed that Brayden Point had clearly failed to clear the zone before Goodrow entered the offensive zone in the sequence leading up to Tampa's goal.
During the moderately lengthy review, Cooper was seen on the bench looking frustrated. And once the referee announced that the goal had indeed been disallowed, Cooper blew his top, hurling expletives onto the ice.
Again, the evidence on that offside play was overwhelming, as Point's decision to coast out of the attacking zone was to blame for the goal coming off the board. Yet perhaps the one-two punch of the Boston goal and the overturned Tampa goal combined to set him off so severely early in Game 2.
The Lightning did work through the frustration, though, with Blake Coleman finishing off a dynamite 2-on-1 with Bogosian to score the game-tying goal with a little over seven minutes remaining in the first period. They went on to win in overtime, 4-3, to tie the series and likely lighten Cooper's mood.
