The Boston Bruins must feel like the entire Eastern Conference s breathing down their necks.
Ondrej Palat had a goal in Bolts win over Chicago Monday night – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Mostly that’s because they are.
On Monday, the Tampa Bay Lightning improved to 37-29-9 with 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks to move within a point of idle Boston for the second wild card spot in the east.
Monday night saw Yanni Gourde as the hero when he scored with just 35 seconds left in extra time to get the win for the Bolts.
“It’s a pretty amazing moment,” Gourde said. “I’ve worked very hard to be here. Obviously, I was in the [ECHL] at a moment in my career. It’s very special to be here and be playing along these guys. It’s a pretty amazing feeling.”
The Golts got regulation goals from Jonathan Drouin who struck twice and Ondrej Palat and Anton Stralman.
Andrei Vasilevskiy was give the hook after a slow start in the period; he was replaced by Peter Budaj but returned to the game to get the win.
“[This win] is not going to mean anything unless we get ourselves in [the playoffs]. This was just another step…and it’s a really exciting one. But just like we had to regroup after the Arizona game, we have to regroup after the Chicago game. We got the two [points] we came for. Now it’s all about [the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday],” Tampa head coach Jon Cooper said.
Artemi Panarin, Patrick Kane, Tomas Jurco, and Richard Panik had strikes for the Hawks who dropped to 48-21-7.
Chicago are still eight points clear of second place Minnesota Wild in the Central Division.
“We were 100 percent better than we were last game,” Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville said. “We had everything going our way there and we started getting cute in the neutral zone and some poor turnovers gave them some rush chances. We have got to be better with the puck.”
WATCH: All Blackhawks vs. Lightning highlights
Scott took the loss on 25 saves.
“It’s tough. We had such a good first period and a good start to the second. They turned it on there in the last 10 minutes in the second. It’s pretty impressive, and I thought we played good. I’ve got to come up with a save there in OT,” Darling said after the loss.
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