Dan Girardi’s overtime tip in was the difference as the Tampa Bay Lightning come back from blowing a two goal lead on the road to win 4-3 in the extra period to take a 3-1 series lead.
Tampa Bay jumped out in front for a second straight game in the face of the loud home town crowd at TD Garden Center. Off a lazy turnover by the Bruins in the neutral zone, Brayden Point grabbed the puck and weaved through the Boston defense for a highlight goal of his career. Point’s unassisted goal snuck past Tukka Rask to make it 1-0 Bolts just over four minutes into the game.
Nikita Kucherov added to Tampa Bay’s early lead just five minutes later on the power play following a delay of game penalty called on Zdeno Chara. The Bolts once again jumped out to a two goal lead early on the road in Boston, but this time the lead would not last.
The Bruins struck first on the power play in the first period as David Pastrnak put Boston on the board with a rebound shot point blank past Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it a one goal game. Boston tied the game in the second period again on the man advantage as Patrice Bergeron found the back of the net tying the game at two a piece.
It would go to the third period when Boston would take their first lead of the series on home ice as Brad Marchand found Bergeron on a shorthanded tip in front putting it past Vasilevskiy making it 3-2 Boston. Things waned down to the final minutes of the third when Steven Stamkos came through in the clutch for the Lightning off a one timer from Nikita Kucherov tying the game at three goals a piece.
The contest moved to overtime where a tipped toss at the net from Alex Killorn off the stick of Dan Girardi beat Tukaa Rask to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-3 overtime win and a 3-1 series lead.
Tampa Bay will go for the series win on Sunday at Amalie Arena with a 3:00pm face off. You can hear all the action on 970AM WFLA.
Photo Courtesy Of Getty Images