1/30/22 by Charles Coors
The Boston Bruins continued a five-game road trip, heading down to Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday and the Florida Panthers on Thursday. Unfortunately, the Bruins were only able to come away with one point in both games, having lost to the Lightning in regulation and the Panthers in overtime.
The first game between the Bruins and the Lightning was a showdown between the two goalies representing the Metro Division in the upcoming All-Star Game, Linus Ullmark of Boston and Andrei Vasilevskiy of Tampa Bay. Both goalies are heavy favorites for the Vezina trophy, boasting more than twenty wins each and playing exceptionally well throughout the season.
The goalies sure did show up that night, both of them saving over 35 shots on goal throughout the matchup. However, it was Brandon Hagel who put the moves on Linus Ullmark on the power play, ten minutes into the game with assists from Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. With about a minute left in the first period, David Pastrnak took a one-timer that almost slipped through Vasilevskiy’s blocker side, but Charlie Coyle didn’t get there in time to put it away.
The second period started off with a power play opportunity that the Bruins couldn’t cash in, but neither could the Lightning as Ullmark continued to show off some elite goaltending. Then, while on a four-on-four shift with three minutes left, Brad Marchand received passes from Connor Clifton and Hampus Lindholm to finally put one past Vasilevskiy to tie the game up 1-1.
Within the first minute of the third period, Nikita Kucherov took a snapshot directly off of a faceoff win from Steven Stamkos in the Bruins zone, netting yet another goal for the Lightning. About two minutes later, Pastrnak, David Krejci, and Pavel Zacha link up below the hash marks to net another goal, tying the game yet again at 2-2. Both teams got incredible chances throughout the period, with Hagel even hitting the goalpost. But it all came down to a two-on-one with Point and Stamkos. Stamkos couldn’t get to a wide point pass, but it caromed off the corner boards directly into Victor Hedman who nets the game-winner with just under seven minutes left.
The Bruins look forward to getting back in the win column with the remaining games on the homestretch being the Florida Panthers and the Carolina Hurricanes, while the Lightning try to keep moving forward with the Los Angeles Kings ahead of them.