We have ourselves a series, folks. And we needed to overtime to decide Game 2’s winner.
The Lightning took their first lead of the game midway through the third. And despite the Boston Bruins tying it late in the period, Tampa Bay was able to come out on top in overtime.
Nick Ritchie, Brad Marchand (twice) had the goals for the Bruins, while Blake Coleman (twice), Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat accounted for the Lightning’s tallies.
The series now is tied 1-1.
Here’s how it all went down:
TIED AFTER 20
A broken stick helped lead to the Bruins’ first goal.
Zach Bogosian’s stick snapped which led to Ritchie taking the puck to the net hard. He and Charlie Coyle jammed at it until the puck finally crossed the red line for the 1-0 lead.
The Bolts appeared to tie it up moments later, but an offsides review overruled the goal.
Braydon Coburn ripped a shot from the point that Barclay Goodrow tipped off Halak’s mask and by the goalie from the slot.
The Bruins challenged for the Lightning being offsides due to Brayden Point showing a lack of hustle getting out of the offensive zone, causing Goodrow to indeed be offsides.
It remained 1-0 Bruins and Jon Cooper wasn’t happy, to say the least.
But Tampa Bay tied things up (for real this time) on a beautiful goal that began with Bogosian splitting Torey Krug and Brandon Carlo. He then fed the puck over to a diving Coleman who got the puck past Halak to make it 1-1.
Boston got a crucial chance to reclaim the lead on an Alex Killorn high-sticking penalty. But Tampa was much more aggressive on the kill than in Game 1 and the game remained tied.
The Lightning held a slim 11-9 shot advantage after 20 minutes.
TWO APIECE
The Bruins killed a Sean Kuraly slashing penalty 6:40 into the second and went on the power play when Palat was whistled for a high-sticking call on Connor Clifton.
And this time the Bruins capitalized.
David Pastrnak fed Marchand backdoor and the puck bounced off the forward’s skate before making its way into the net for 2-1 edge.
But the lead didn’t last long.
Point made up for his lack of hustle in the first when he absolutely battled to keep the puck, dump it off to Kevin Shattenkirk who threw it on net. Kucherov got a piece of it to tie things up at 2-2 just 55 seconds later.
Tampa Bay again outshot Boston 12-7 in the second.
SIXTY MINUTES NOT ENOUGH
Clifton went to the box just 35 seconds into the final period for interference to give the Bolts an opportunity early.
But Boston’s kill remained perfect.
The Lightning put enormous pressure on Halak, but the B’s netminder stood on his head and made an impressive kick save to prevent the opponents from going up by one.
Tampa ulimately broke the tie with 9:20 to go when Coleman went five-hole on Halak on a breakaway.
But the Bruins did not go down quietly.
An incredible effort by Boston led to Marchand’s second goal of the night with help from Kuraly.
And this one needed overtime to decide the winner.
TAMPA TIES IT
Tampa Bay dominated the OT period and it ended up playing in its favor when Palat potted the game-winner.
UP NEXT
The Bruins and Lightning are right back at it Wednesday night. Puck drop for Game 3 is set for 8 p.m. ET.
