Lightning rebounds with a 4-2 victory NHL PLAYOFFS

TAMPA, FLA.» Well, Brayden Point promised a better effort in Game 2, and he delivered.

Point, who struggled in the Game 1 loss trying to defend the Bruins’ top line, had a goal and three assists Monday in the Lightning’s 4-2 victory.

Game 3 is Wednesday in Boston.

The Lightning have shown the ability all season to bounce back from a poor effort. They did it again in a game they had to win given the success rate of teams that dropped the first two home games of a best-of-seven series. That would be 22 percent.

The intensity that was such a big part of their first-round series against the Devils, but was lacking in Game 1 against the Bruins, showed up.

It was not easy. The Lightning led 3-1 with four minutes to play, but the Bruins made it 3-2 when Torey Krug scored off an offensive zone face off.

Minutes earlier, Ondrej Palat scored what appeared to be a back-breaking goal to give the Lightning a 3-1 lead.

Point, though, put the game out of reach with an empty-net goal with 25 seconds remaining.

Point intercepted a pass by Brad Marchand and fed Palat, who scored his first goal of the series and second of the postseason.

Tyler Johnson made it 2-1 midway through the second when he converted a cross ice pass from Point and beat Tuukka Rask.

It was the second time Point found a linemate for a goal.

Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak were not the gamebreakers they were in Game 1 when they convert- ed just about every scoring chance.

Meanwhile, a couple of names not heard from often since the start of the playoffs — Johnson and Yanni Gourde — scored.

Gourde made it 1-0 midway through the first when he took a cross-ice pass from Point with the Lightning on the power play and beat Rask.

The Lightning controlled the action for most of the period, holding the Bruins without a shot for the first 14 minutes.

Bergeron ended the drought when he tried to beat Vasilevskiy to the near post from the right side. That led to a little pushing and shoving in front of the net. Johnson was called for roughing on Marchand. It became a 5-on-3 advantage 15 seconds later after Ryan McDonagh pushed Marchand face-first into the boards.

But the Lightning responded to the challenge.

Vasilevskiy, who made three saves in the 15 seconds before McDonagh was sent off, made two more with the Bruins skating with a two-man advantage. Ryan Callahan, Anton Stralman and Victor Hedman each blocked shots.

The hometown fans were in a frenzy when the Lightning killed off the two penalties.

But the Lightning could not use the momentum to their advantage. The Bruins tied it with 90 seconds left in the first period when Charlie McAvoy fired from between the faceoff circles and beat Vasilevskiy.