On Friday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning extended their dominance in their second round series with the Boston Bruins.
Dan Girardi struck early in the first overtime to give the Lightning a 4-3 win and 3-1 series lead.
Girardi scored off a deflected puck that skimmed his blade.
“I was kind of deep in the zone and I saw they made a good play at the blue line to have control, and I kind of just beat my guy up the ice a little bit, got on the right side of him,” Girardi said. “And [Killorn] made a great slice at the net there and just luckily it hit my stick and I was kind of set up in my office in front of the net there.”
Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov scored for Tampa Bay.
“It’s obviously a big goal, but in saying that, we come to the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs to win hockey games,” Stamkos said. “Obviously you want to produce in these moments, but there’s a reason we’ve been very successful as a team in the season and so far in the playoffs. It’s because we have really good players on our hockey team. It’s not about one guy, it’s not about one line, it’s the depth that makes good hockey teams.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves to pick up the win.
Patrice Bergeron struck twice and David Pastrnak added a single marker in the loss.
The Bolts can move on to the Eastern Conference final with a win in Game 5 Sunday.
“It’s going to be the hardest game of the series, it always is. And especially against a group like that who’s been there before and there’s a lot of veteran guys over there. It’s good it’s at home for us, but at the same time, it’s going to be a tough one. The fourth one is always the hardest,” Tampa’s Ryan Callahan said.
[WATCH: All Lightning vs. Bruins highlights | Complete Lightning vs. Bruins series coverage]
Tuukka Rask made 24 saves in taking the loss.
“Desperate hockey. You know we’ve shown character all year. You know I’ve spoken about that, about the resilience in this room, so it’s time to show it,” Bergeron said after the loss.
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