Ondrej Palat’s overtime winner ties Bruins-Lightning at 1-1
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
Another stuck-in-the-mud defensive-zone shift cost the Bruins, this time in overtime, as Ondrej Palat’s overtime tally 4;40 into Tuesday’s Game 2 has tied this second-round series between the Bruins and Lightning at 1-1.
Hemmed in their own zone, and with Torey Krug and Brandon Carlo unable to clear the puck out of their own zone in what ended as a 1:08 shift, it was Palat that collected a loose rebound and stuffed it by a down-and-out Jaroslav Halak.
Before Boston’s second overtime of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it was the Bruins who once again opened the game’s scoring, this time just 3:14 into action. That goal came with something tangible from the B’s third line, too, with Nick Ritchie jamming away (with Charlie Coyle) underneath Andrei Vasilevskiy’s pad to bury his first goal of the postseason.
Barclay Goodrow and the Bolts needed less than two minutes to respond, and appeared to do exactly that with a deflection through Jaroslav Halak at the 5:04 mark of the opening frame. But the Bruins were quick to challenge, and with some serious credit to their eagle-eyed video review team, as the replay revealed that Brayden Point was late on the tag-up into the o-zone.
OFFSIDE. NO GOAL
— Fuck Dave Portnoy ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) August 25, 2020
Still 1-0 #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/wzUW20wi83
And though that would-be goal from Goodrow did not pass the video review, Tampa Bay did even things up before the end of the opening 20 on a diving Blake Coleman finish via Halak’s five-hole at the 12:42 mark of the period.
The period was relatively even from a statistical standpoint — the Bruins finished with nine shots compared to 11 from the Bolts — but this was closer to the second-period Lightning you saw in Game 1. Led by countless shifts of sustained attacking-zone pressure and a near constant five-man attack that flustered and over the B’s, the Lightning truly imposed their will at times.
But all of that meant nothing when Boston’s white-hot power play got back to work in the second period.
Needing just 19 seconds of man-advantage time, David Pastrnak helped give Boston their second lead of the evening with a beautiful feed right to Brad Marchand’s skates and into Vasilevskiy’s net for the go-ahead marker.
WHAT A PASS BY PASTA!
— Fuck Dave Portnoy ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) August 26, 2020
🚨 Brad Marchand PP
2-1 #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/m54NCJlq4p
Once again though, the Boston lead wouldn’t last.
In fact, it took all of 55 seconds for Tampa Bay to respond with a Nikita Kucherov tip through Halak at 15:28.
That held as the final tally of the period, too, despite a strong power-play chance from the Bruins, with Pastrnak in prime real estate all alone but unable to land a shot on Vasilevskiy.
Boston would survive an early third-period penalty kill, but all it took for the Lightning to jump ahead was a wild Connor Clifton shot, a failure to recognize a streaking Blake Coleman up the middle, an another leaky five-hole to put the Bruins behind for the first time all series. With Clifton and Zdeno Chara left to simply watch-and-chase as Coleman blazed into the Boston zone with the puck on his stick, it was a squeaker through the 35-year-old Halak that put Tampa up 3-2 with 9:20 left to play.
But in a role-reversal of sorts, the Bruins were not going to go down without a countpunch of their own.
Deep in the Tampa zone with Sean Kuraly playing the role of Patrice Bergeron between Marchand and Pastrnak, the trio came through with what felt like about three second-efforts each before Marchand was all alone on Vasilevskiy’s backdoor yet again. And the Black and Gold’s beloved agitator-turned-superstar didn’t miss, tying things at 3-3 with just 3:58 left to play.
🚨 Brad Marchand - 2nd tonight
— Fuck Dave Portnoy ⬇️ (@TheReplayGuy) August 26, 2020
3-3 pic.twitter.com/j0ttrjaK9n
But then came Palat’s overtime tally, which improved the Lightning to 4-0 in overtime play this postseason.
Halak stopped 36-of-40 in the losing effort (his first of the postseason), and gave up too gotta-stop tallies through his five hole. Vasilevskiy, meanwhile, made 22 saves for the win.
These teams won’t have to wait long to get back at one another, either, with Game 3 set for Wednesday night.
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.
