After two straight losses to open the regular season, the Tampa Bay Lightning are back in the win column as they ruin the Bruins’ undefeated start with a 4-3 win to open week two of matches.
Lightning center, Anthony Cirelli led the Lightning offense with two goals. Right winger, Pontus Holmberg and center Yanni Gourde each had a goal as well and Jake Guentzel and Gage Goncalves each contributed with a pair of assists in Tampa’s win as well, along with J.J. Moser, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Max Crozier who all contributed with assists.
The Lightning commanded the first period. Cirelli opened the scoring with a goal just over a minute in to the match on assists by Guentzel and Goncalves; He scored his second goal of the match 12 minutes later with 6:44 remaining in the period. In the same sequence of events, Guentzel and Goncalves had the assists.
The Lightning got off to another quick start in the second period as just :40 seconds in Gourdi split the posts for Tampa’s third goal of the day to extend their lead. Holmberg and Moser had the assists.
The Bruins got on the scoreboard a minute later with 18:51 left in the period as Casey Mittelstadt broke through the Lightning defense for the first time on Monday. He was assisted by Viktor Arvidsson and Pavel Zacha.
The Lightning answered back with 16:23 remaining as Holmberg had his first goal of the afternoon on assists by Bjorkstrand and Crozier.
The Bruins then responded right back with back-to-back goals to bring the Lightning lead within one. Jordan Harris, assisted by David Pastrnak, scored on Tampa with 14:29 remaining in the period. Morgan Geekie then made it a 4-3 match with a goal with under nine minutes to play on an assist that came from Zacha.
That’s where the score remained as neither squad was able to put a goal in the net in the third period. The Lightning had five shots on goal and the Bruins had 10. In total, the Bruins out-shot Tampa 33-23, but ultimately, the Lightning were able to put the puck between the net when they needed to and that was the difference as the Bruins undefeated streak was ruined and the Lightning put a “W” in the win column.
The Lightning (1-2-0) are back on the ice on Tuesday against the Washington Capitols (2-1-0). Puck drops in Washington at 7:00 PM EDT. This will be the first of three matches between the Capitols and Lightning.