The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Boston Bruins 3-1 on Saturday afternoon in Toronto. The win gives the Lightning a 3-1 series lead over Boston in the best of seven series.
The game started well for Tampa Bay, as the Lightning put a lot of pressure on the Bruins early and came through with a goal from Ondrej Palat at the 8:59 mark of the first period. In the second period, it would be Palat coming through with his second goal at the 12:29 mark to give the Lightning a 2-0 lead.
Later in the second period, Nick Ritchie was called for a five-minute major for boarding against Yanni Gourde, which would prove to be huge. It would be Victor Hedman capitalizing on the ensuing power play and the Lightning went into the second intermission with a commanding 3-0 lead.
Though the Bruins answered with a power play goal from Jake DeBrusk at the 7:04 mark of the third period, that would be as close as the Bruins would get. This was in large part because Andrei Vasilevskiy was on top of his game, going 29-for-30 in net, picking up his 24th playoff win. Jaroslav Halak went 23-for-26 in net for the Bruins in defeat.
The Lightning will now look to close out the series in game five which is scheduled for Monday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 PM Monday - pregame coverage will begin at 6 PM on News Radio WFLA.