TAMPA, Fla – After trailing 3-0 in the 1st period, Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to overcome the Boston Bruins in game 4 of their Eastern Conference show down.
Patrice Bergeron gave the visiting Bruins a lead after just over 11 minutes when Brett Clarke mishandled the puck, leaving the Team Canada forward with an opportunity right on the door step. Michael Ryder doubled the Boston lead 5 minutes later when his pass deflected off a skate past Dwayne Roloson in the Lighting net.
Things went from bad to worse for Roloson and Tampa Bay when less than two minutes later Bergeron grabbed his second of the night with a shorthanded effort. The goal signalled the end of Roloson’s night as the previously red hot veteran gave up 3 goals on 9 shots, with Mike Smith coming in to relieve the 41-year old.
“So whenever it’s time for him to help the team and try to change the momentum around, I don’t hesitate,” head coach Guy Boucher after the game of the goalie change. “It was the same in Boston. We put him in. He didn’t get scored against in the third period. We were trying to come back. He played well again.”
With a mountain to climb heading in to the second period, Guy Boucher’s side switched up a gear and quickly found themselves back in the game when Teddy Purcell scored twice in just over a minute.
“He’s always had poise with the puck,” Boucher said of Purcell after the game. “I think what we were discovering with Teddy now is that when it’s a tough game, when it’s a close environment type of game where there’s not much space out there, he can do the same now as what he was doing before when he had a lot of space. And to me, that’s a major evolution of his game, because that means that what he was doing in the American League and college ranks, he can be doing in games now and not just during the regular season; he was doing it in the biggest games.”
Sean Bergenheim then added his league leading 9th goal to tie it at 3-3 after coming away with the puck behind the net and beating Tim Thomas as he walked out in front.
“Right now this day’s great,” Boucher said after the game. “We’ll have a meal and savor, but tomorrow morning we wake up and the reality is that it’s 2-2 or 0-0 if you like it, and the illusion — the illusion is that we’re really great and we have something, but we’re not. The reality is it’s 0-0 going into Boston, just like we were the first game played there. We went in the first game 0-0, and now we’re going there again 2-2. So there’s no difference in our approach.”
The momentum stayed with the home side in the final frame. Mike Smith denying Milan Lucic from a tight angle early in the period, just one of his 21 saves on the night, before Ryan Malone’s drop pass set Simon Gagne up to score the go ahead goal just moments later.
Veteran winger Martin St Louis added an one more within the final minute of the game to round off a memorable come back for the Lightning who have now tied the series at two games apiece.
The two sides meet again in Boston on Monday.
Contact the author: rob.mcgregor@prohockeynews.com
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