Another Third Period Blown: Breaking Apart Bruins Loss to Lightning

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Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

BOSTON – The Bruins don’t often lose third-period leads, but the Lightning have stolen three from them this season. 

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The Boston Bruins (43-27-10) lost 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning (49-25-6), extending their losing streak to five games while Tampa Bay snapped a three-game skid. Morgan Geekie scored his 38th goal of the season, but two Lightning goals in the third period decided the game. 

“Tough loss, obviously. Feels like three times this year have been against this team, you know, we get the lead. They’re too skilled and too good for us [to] not keep pushing, and you know, they came back again,” David Pastrnak said after the game. “It’s on us again. Could create more offense, give [Swayman] some help. He was outstanding today. So, tough loss. But you know, we have another big one tomorrow, so we have to get on the road and do the job there.” 

The lone boost on offense was started via a Charlie McAvoy stretch pass, connecting with Morgan Geekie on a breakaway and giving the Bruins a lead in the second period.

“He’s feeling it again,” Sturm said about Geekie. “So that’s nice to see, you know, he doesn’t think. That breakaway says it all. He doesn’t think, he just shoots, and it goes in the net. So it’s nice to see him back, you know, smiling and being confident like he is all year.” 

It’s Geekie’s fourth goal in two games after a 17-game drought. 

But the Bruins let it slip. 

They are 31-2-4 when leading after two periods this season; the Lightning are three of those six losses (0-2-1). 

“It’s a good team over there. And I feel like exactly what happened tonight, it happened in the past against them. You know, those little moments,” Marco Sturm said after the game. “If you just look at the two goals against, that hurts. We have to move on here. Unfortunately, cost us the game, but it’s still in our control, so that’s a good thing.” 

The two third–period goals were costly for the Bruins. With a win, they would have clinched a playoff berth. 

“We got to make sure we’re going to stay sharp,” Sturm said about the upcoming game. “I’m going to remind them what happened last time in Columbus. We got absolutely dominated in the first period, and it took us a long time to get it back. We can’t do that tomorrow. So, I think that’s something I’m going to address for sure, and forget about going into playoffs or not, that we are going to take it period by period, and we want to build on a lot of things we did good, even today.”

Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves on Saturday and finished with 0.37 goals saved above expected. That does not mean he is off the table to play again on Sunday. 

“Yeah, absolutely,” Sturm said about playing Swayman in back-to-back nights. “I mean, he’s our best guy, he’s our best goalie all year long, and in those big moments, we need our best guy. So for me, it was definitely [Swayman].”

What about James Hagens?

“I don’t know,” Marco Sturm said. “I’m just not there yet. We got to look at some video today and decide tomorrow, and go from there.”

Michael Eyssimont skated on the third line with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov on Saturday, recording a team-low 10:44 of ice time. However, shot attempts were 8-3 when the third line was on the ice, according to Natural Stat Trick. After the game, Sturm said he liked the line. 

The Senators won on Saturday and leapfrogged the Bruins in the wild card standings. Both teams have 96 points, but Ottawa holds the tiebreaker (37 regulation wins to Boston’s 31). 

Regardless, the Bruins are already focused on Sunday’s game against the Blue Jackets (39-28-12). 

“It’s important to stay in the moment,” Jeremy Swayman said. “It can get easy to get lost in the past and the future, but with this group right now, it’s really important to just stay where our feet are and focus on the next challenge at hand.” 

The team has another chance to clinch a spot in the postseason, and within the room, the team is confident in the group. 

“I think we know we can beat good teams in this league, and we’ve shown we can play with them all year,” Morgan Geekie added. “I think, for us, doing it consistently and kind of limiting those lapses and, you know, if we’re going to make mistakes, try not to make them grade A’s or opportunities for the other team to score. We know games like that are going to happen, where they kind of slip away, but we got a lot of confidence in this group, and we’ll just try to get back on the horse tomorrow.”

Sunday’s game marks the Bruins’ final road game of the season, and one last chance to bring their road record up to .500. They are 15-16-9 away from home this season, while the Blue Jackets have a 20-11-8 home record. 

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