In Toronto, Ondrej Palat scored a goal in the first and second periods on Saturday afternoon to propel the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of their second round series.
“I think I’m playing the same game,” Palat said. “I’m just happy it’s going in, but I’m also happy with how the team is playing.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for the win.
Tampa holds a 3-1 series lead.
“The talent they have over there, they’re an exceptional team,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said of the Bruins. “They had to play a lot of their players a bunch of minutes to get themselves back into it. We weathered the storm when they were pressing. … On our side of things, guys were committed. Guys were blocking shots. Guys were committed to our structure in the neutral zone.”
Jake DeBrusk broke up the shutout bid with a power play goal in the third period for the Bruins.
“Obviously, [the Lightning] are a very good team,” DeBrusk said. “We knew what to expect. They’ve got some big defensemen that can move. It’s about trying to get to the inside and things like that. … There’s sometimes, in this series so far, we’ve lacked the shot mentality, I guess, if that makes any sense. We have to give them credit. They’ve got good goaltending.”
Victor Hedman added a power play goal for the Bolts in the middle frame.
“The other day, I do feel those games happen from time to time where the other team is better and they take advantage of opportunities,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “They keep getting opportunities and taking advantage of them. So I don’t think we had our legs in Game 3. This one, I thought we did. We had our energy level.
“We were competing hard, winning our share of races, winning pucks. To score goals, we have to hit the net more often.”
Game 5 is set for Monday.
Boston’s Nick Ritchie received a five-minute major in the game for boarding on Yanni Gourde in the second period.
[WATCH: All Lightning vs. Bruins highlights]
Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves in the loss.
“Just have to stay with it,” the Bruins’ Charlie Coyle said. “They have a good goaltender over there. It’s a great team. They’re here for a reason. We’ve got to find a way. Get traffic in front. Get to the dirty areas. … That’s where we have to play.”
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