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Bruins blow four-goal lead, lose 6-5 to Lightning in Stadium Series
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- Bruins blow four-goal lead, lose 6-5 to Lightning in Stadium Series
The Bruins blew a four-goal lead and fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning , 6-5, in the shootout in Sunday’s Stadium Series game at Raymond James Stadium.
The game had a little bit of everything: A goalie fight , a history-making goal in the first period, 11 penalties in the second period, seven straight power-play opportunities for the Lightning, a waved off goal in overtime and an entertaining 65 minutes that ended in a shootout.
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Despite having a 5-1 lead in the second period, things unraveled for the Bruins as they let the Lightning crawl back into the game in the second period.
It took just 11 seconds for the Lightning to strike on a Brandon Hagel goal on Tampa Bay ’s first shot of the game that beat Jeremy Swayman high.
But the Bruins tilted the ice in the second half of the first period.
Alex Steeves , who’s been a recent healthy scratch for Boston , scored his first goal since Dec. 23 on a feed from Mikey Eyssimont to tie things at 1-1.
Four minutes later, Morgan Geekie scored his fifth goal in as many games to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead on a tip in past Andrei Vasilevskiy .
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Viktor Arvidsson made it 3-1 on the power play on another tip in with 1:57 left in the first.
The Bruins went into the first intermission with a two-goal lead and a 20-8 shot advantage.
Boston extended its lead just 2:22 into the second period when Matt Poitras scored on a nice backhand in his second game since being called up by the Bruins on Jan. 29.
Geekie scored his second goal of the game off the rush with Pastrnak to make it 5-1 as the Bruins remained in complete control of the Lightning.
The Lightning got one back on the power play when Oliver Bjorkstrand got the puck by Swayman after it went off Hagel’s skate to make it 5-2.
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And Tampa Bay took back control of the game.
A post-goal scrum ensued after Mark Kastelic was the only one called for a penalty as the Lightning went right back on the power play.
The second period continued its entertainment when a goalie fight occurred with 8:59 to go. A scrum occurred in front of Swayman after a save, and he got involved with the skirmish to his right before he skated to center ice to meet Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The scrap was brief before Swayman was taken down by Vasilevskiy.
The penalties began to pile up for the Bruins and the Lightning finally capitalized with back-to-back 5-on-3 goals. Darren Raddish and Nick Paul scored 23 seconds apart with three Bruins in the penalty box to make it a 5-4 game with 3:47 left in the second period.
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The Lightning erased the 5-1 deficit with 8:10 to go in the third when Nikita Kucherov hammered home a one-time pass from Ryan McDonagh to tie things at 5-5.
David Pastnrak appeared to end it in overtime, but a delayed penalty led to a slashing call and the goal was waved off as Pastrnak headed to the penalty box.
Boston killed it off thanks to some big saves from Swayman and the puck hitting the crossbar. Kucherov tried to end it on a breakaway, but he was stopped by Swayman.
Pastrnak took his second penalty of the overtime period with 24.7 seconds left and the Bruins were able to hang on to get to the shootout.
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Jake Guentzel scored in the third round of the shootout and the Bruins countered with Pastrnak, but he hit the post and the Lightning earned the win.
It was the largest comeback win in Lightning history.
The Bruins return to action Wednesday against the Florida Panthers . It will be their last game before the three-week Olympic break.
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