Lightning Dominate In Overtime, Beat Bruins 4-3 To Tie Series At One Game Apiece
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's officially a series.
Ondrej Palat scored 4:40 into an overtime period that was absolutely dominated by the Lightning, vaulting Tampa Bay to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins and knotting the series at one game apiece.
Jaroslav Halak stopped a wraparound bid by Pat Maroon, but a loose puck trickled out to Palat, who scored the game-winner for Tampa.
The Bruins had rallied late in the third period to tie the game at 3-3, with David Pastrnak and Sean Kuraly picking up well-earned assists on Brad Marchand's goal. The Bruins hoped to turn that into a victory, but the Lightning completely controlled play in the short overtime period, outshooting Boston 9-1.
Halak made 36 saves for Boston, while Andrei Vasilevskiy only had to make 22 saves for the win.
A 2-2 was broken midway through the third period when Blake Coleman was on the receiving end of a stretch pass from Victor Hedman, sneaking behind Connor Clifton and Zdeno Chara and barely fitting a puck through Jaroslav Halak's five-hole on a near-breakaway to give Tampa its first lead of the evening.
With the Bruins' outlook looking to be a bit dicey, some sustained pressure eventually led to Marchand's game-tying goal.
The Bruins got the first lead of the game early in the first period off a somewhat controversial sequence. Vasilevskiy briefly covered a Charlie Coyle doorstep bid with his right pad, but as a scramble ensued, he lost control of the puck as it squeaked through his legs and over the goal line. Nick Ritchie was credited with the goal.
The Lightning tied it up less than two minutes later -- or so they thought -- when Barclay Goodrow redirected a Braydon Coburn shot past Halak. But Bruce Cassidy challenged the play for offside and won, taking the goal off the board and sending Jon Cooper into an emotional outburst behind the Tampa bench.
The Lightning did finally get their first goal of the game later in the first period, when Zach Bogosian stickhandled around Torey Krug and past Brandon Carlo before sending a pass to Blake Coleman, who finished the play with a shot while falling to the ice. The puck -- and Coleman himself -- made it into the net, tying the game at 1-1.
The teams exchanged goals in a bang-bang sequence late in the second period. The Bruins got the first one on the power play, after Connor Clifton took a high stick from Ondrej Palat in the neutral zone. David Pastrnak sent a pass to Brad Marchand, who was standing near the post and redirected the pass into the net to give Boston a 2-1 lead.
That lead held for all of 56 seconds, though, as Nikita Kucherov tipped a Kevin Shattenkirk shot past Halak on the other end of the ice to tie the game again.
The two teams will need to work overtime in their recovery efforts, as Game 3 will be played Wednesday night.
