Bruins get back to work
Continue to own Lightning
TAMPA — After a few days away from hockey, the Bruins needed a period or so last night to remind themselves of the game they must play to be successful — a game that starts with an aggressive forecheck.
Outplayed in the first period and held to just four shots by the desperate Tampa Bay Lightning, the Bruins played much better the rest of the night, outshooting their guests 31-13 in the final 40 minutes, and grounded out a 4-3 victory.
In a game of see-saw scoring, it was a powerplay goal by Frank Vatrano (No. 6) at 12:23 of the third that proved decisive.
Earlier, goals late in the second period by Patrice Bergeron (12) and David Krejci (12) — the latter one with less than a second left — gave the B’s a 2-1 lead. After the second of two goals by exHarvard star Alex Killorn retied the game early in Period 3, Zdeno Chara’s bomb (4) from atop the right circle put the B’s back up, 3-2.
They then hung on to get their third straight victory and continue their dominance of the Bolts (15-3-1 in their last 19), whose slim playoff hopes took a big hit.
“To be honest I really felt that our will to win got better in the second and third, and that was the difference in the game,” said B’s coach Claude Julien. “I thought in the first period they pushed their will on us a little more than we did on them. We came out in the second with a much better period, and in the third we kept pushing and got ourselves a real important win.”
Tuukka Rask, who may be back in nets tonight when the B’s face the Capitals in Washington, didn’t like the way the game started, but loved how his mates turned things around after the first intermission.
“We got our forecheck going and spent some time in the offensive zone,” Rask said. “That’s the biggest thing. Obviously, that’s going to wear teams down. We realized that if we let them come at us the way they did in the first period, it was going to be a long night. We had to get something going, and our forecheck changed everything.”
The Lightning knew this game was critically important in their attempt to climb back into a playoff spot.
“We have a lot of ground we have to make up,” said winger Brian Boyle, an exBoston College star from Hingham. “We have a lot of teams we have to jump over.”
Even as the Bruins took command of the game in Period 2, the home team grabbed a 1-0 lead on the first Killorn goal at 8:41. It appeared the one-goal margin might stand up through the end of 40.
But at 18:08 of the second, with the clubs playing 4-on4, Bergeron put a deft deflection on a point shot from Adam McQuaid, tipping it through goalie Ben Bishop 5-hole to tie the game, 1-1.
Then with less than a second left and the Lightning defense standing around waiting for the end of the period, Krejci kept skating, used big defenseman Andrej Sustr as a screen in the left slot and snapped a wrister high to the far side, making it 2-1.
With that late strike, the B’s entered the final period with all the momentum.
And at 7:51, just after a power play, Colin Miller faked a slap shot in the left circle and fed a perfect feed cross-ice to Chara. The big guy teed up a monster slapper that cleanly beat Bishop to the far side.
Though that one was technically an even-strength goal (0:03 after a PP), it was a good night for the B’s on the man-advantage. Vatrano netted a PPG on a slap from the left circle, a puck that looked to be deflected en route by Ondrej Palat before it flew past Bishop, short side.
The Bolts are a longshot to make the playoffs, but Julien considers them a good team that’s had some misfortune.
“They’ve had some challenges (with injuries) and tough luck,” Julien said. “At the same time, I still see a pretty good team on the ice, a team that you have to respect a lot. They’re deep (and) they’ve got a lot of guys who can do some damage offensively. It’s never been easy games (against Tampa Bay); they’ve always been close games.”
It was close last night on the scoreboard. Not so much on the ice.