In Toronto, the Boston Bruins took a 3-0 lead in Game 1 of their second round series with the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday evening.
Charlie Coyle got this started in the first period.
“You’re typically not going to advance if your best players aren’t your best players,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Their line carried us. I thought some other guys did their job as well, just didn’t get rewarded on the scoresheet. But a nice start for that line.”
David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand scored in the second and third periods, respectively.
“We obviously buckled down when the playoffs started,” Marchand said. “That’s kind of how the script is. When it’s time to play, guys are prepared and know how to prepare. It kind of showed tonight. But it’s one game. We have to follow it up next game.”
Jaroslav Halak, who made 35 saves, then had to hold off a late surge from the Lightning for a 3-2 win and series lead.
“We’ve got to help him out, but we also have so much confidence in him,” Coyle said. “He’s a great goalie. He’s been huge for us. When they slip in there and we break down a little bit, he’s there to shut the door.”
The Lightning were scoreless in three attempts on the power play.
“It hasn’t burned us yet, but if it continues, it very well might,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “You get down to those one-goal games, usually it’s the special-teams goal that’s going to get you. They got theirs (Boston was 1-for-3) and we didn’t get ours. … I’m not sitting here blaming the game on special teams by no reason, but it’s an area that we have to improve at in this series.”
Victor Hedman struck twice twice for the Bolts to get them within one with under two minutes left on the clock.
“We want to have that shooter mentality,” Hedman said. “We work on it a lot in practice. When we get big bodies in front, it’s tough for the goalie to see the puck. So it’s an onus on us D-men to get pucks through. We’ve got to keep doing that. We know what works. We know what’s going to give us success.”
Game 2 of the series is set for Tuesday night.
[WATCH: All Bruins vs. Lightning highlights]
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves in the loss.
“We have to adapt and do a few different things,” Tampa Ba’s Tyler Johnson said. “I thought in the first period, the main thing was our heads weren’t quite into it. Our legs weren’t going.”
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