In Boston, the Bruins dusted off the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 3+1 win on Tuesday night.
Taylor Hall hit for a double for the Bruins.
“We’re learning that every team is going to give us their best,” Hall said. “We’re not controlling play quite as easily as we have in parts of the year, but we stick with it and we just kind of keep playing. I think we’re showing that no matter who we’re playing, it’s really about us and how we play.”
Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves in the Boston win.
“It was just a 2-on-1, right?” Swayman said. “You trust your [defenseman is] going to stop that pass, or you play it as if it was a 2-on-0 in a way, where you’re expecting a pass across. I wanted to have good depth coming back, and where I had a chance to stop the initial shot or the pass across. So that’s just how you play it. Luckily, I was able to stop it.”
The Bruins improved to 19-3-0.
“I thought both teams were really good defensively,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “Sticks, physicality, room and space, there wasn’t a lot of it out there. It was [like] a playoff game. They played a real smart road game, but I liked the way we stuck with it and defended hard and found ways to score.”
Steven Stamkos was the striker for the Lightning, his goal came in the middle frame and tied the game, 1-1, after Hall had staked the Bruins to a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Stamkos’ power play goal was his 999th career NHL point.
Hall scored in the third period to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.
“I think we created a lot of chances down low,” Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said. “We had it behind them, they were doing everything right.”
Tampa dropped to 13-8-1.
“Probably a little bit of a positive is, [it was] a better showing maybe than we did at home (5-3 loss to Boston on Nov. 21),” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “But in the end, you get it down, it’s a tie game in the third period, and you come in here, you don’t want to take penalties against Boston. [We] can’t kill off one penalty, shame on us.”
Brad Marchand hit for an empty-net goal with 41 seconds left on the regulation clock.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves in the Bolts loss.
“I thought for the most part we stuck with them the whole game,” Tampa Bay forward Ross Colton said. “We improved in a lot of areas. Obviously, not the outcome that we wanted, but they’re a good team. They’re the best team in the League for a reason. Obviously, we’re frustrated, but we can build up.”
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