By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
The wait is over for the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning, as the two Atlantic Division powerhouses will indeed meet in the second round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Their second playoff meeting in three years was finalized by way of Montreal’s Game 6 loss to the Flyers on Friday, which locked the top-seeded Philadelphia squad into a matchup with the No. 6 seed Islanders.
The Bruins and Bolts met four times in the regular season prior to the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the remainder of the 82-game season, with Tampa Bay winning three of those four matchups.
The Lightning also won the round-robin head-to-head thanks to a Tyler Johnson game-winner scored with a minute and a half remaining in the third period.
“A round robin game that could’ve went either way I thought, they scored late with about two minutes to go and we got ourselves back in that game,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said of his team’s meetings with the Bolts. “Right before the break we had two really good games. We went up there, they beat us in our building, both physical, both started to develop some animosity in those games.”
This will be the third postseason meeting between these two in their franchise history, with the Bruins winning a seven-game battle for the Prince of Wales Trophy in 2011, and Tampa winning a five-game second-round series in 2018.
Game 1 will be Sunday at 8 p.m., according to NBC.
Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter: @_TyAnderson.