Bruins hammer Lightning for six goals in home-ice victory
Playing with a shorthanded defense, the Bruins knew a strong start was exactly what they needed against a Lightning squad that beat them by a 4-1 final last week in Tampa.
And interim head coach Joe Sacco got that and then some from his team in a 6-2 victory over the Bolts at TD Garden, putting the B’s on their first win streak since they returned from the NHL’s holiday break.
The Bruins’ latest recall made sure this one began with a bang, too, as Matt Poitras led a two-on-one and connected on a great dish to Trent Frederic for a strike just 4:24 into the first period.
The Bruins furthered that start and doubled their lead before the end of the first period, too, on a David Pastrnak dish to Parker Wotherspoon that the Boston defender ripped through the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy at the 9:31 mark of the opening period. The goal was not just Wotherspoon’s first of the season, but also the first of his 76-game NHL career between the Isles and Bruins.
Wotherspoon also got himself off a rather unfortunate list (even if he’s not known for his goal scoring) in the process, too, as he came into Tuesday’s game as one of just eight players in franchise history to make at least 50 appearances for the Bruins and not score a goal.
And the Bruins refused to let up in the second period, with strikes from Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak in a span of just under five minutes, and even got their pound of flesh with a Frederic beatdown on Tampa Bay defenseman Emil Lilleberg after Lilleberg injured Mark Kastelic last week.
The Bruins had been targeting Lilleberg with some punishing hits prior to his dance with Frederic, by all means making it clear he was not going to have himself after a pleasant night after what he did to Kastelic, either for the crosscheck to the face or the piledriver down to the ice in the fight that followed.
But in a period that was looking like it belonged to the Bruins, the Bolts put themselves back within striking distance with a pair of tallies of their own, the first from Conor Geekie and the second from Victor Hedman. Hedman’s goal came with just 18 seconds left in the middle frame, and continued what’s been a troubling trend for the Bruins, as it was the 19th non-empty net goal allowed by the club in the final two minutes of a period this season, and made this the third straight game to feature such a goal against.
But two is as close as the Bolts were going to get in this contest, as Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman made a season-high 43 saves in the victory. The new season-high also comes just one start after Swayman made a season-high 40 saves in last Saturday’s overtime win over the Panthers.
And not that he needed it, but the Bruins came through with two empty-net strikes to seal the deal on this one, with empty netters from Andrew Peeke and Pavel Zacha.
On the backend, Franklin, Mass. native and former Providence College captain Michael Callahan made his NHL debut in place of the injured Charlie McAvoy.
Skating opposite Andrew Peeke on Boston’s third pairing, Callahan finished this contest with one shot and a plus-1 rating in 14:11 of time on ice. Given his stay-at-home tendencies, there wasn’t much that popped off the page with Callahan’s game (and perhaps that’s exactly what you want out of him), but Callahan did have a nice one-on-one victory against Lightning winger Brandon Hagel in the first period.
The Lightning, meanwhile, played this contest without center Brayden Point in what was a team decision after Point reportedly missed a team meeting. The Bruins were certainly happy to play the Lightning without Point in action, as the do-it-all forward came into this showdown with 47 points in 37 games this season, and 11 goals and 19 points in 27 career games against Boston.
Up next, the Bruins will get a bit of an extended break here, with the Bruins now off until Saturday afternoon’s road showdown with the Senators up in Ottawa.
