Bruins Nation

What a game! Both teams scored a goal in each period. Both teams had shorthanded goals. Fourteen penalty shots yielded only one goal, and that one goal came from rookie Phil Kessel. What a game! We're now 3-0 against Tampa.

In the first period, the game just wasn't very intense. Ten minutes into the period, Patrice Bergeron skated around the Lightning net with the puck. He attempted to pass the puck to Brad Boyes who was in front of the net. Lightning goalie Marc Denis tipped the puck though and the puck squirted upwards. Brad Boyes then shot the coolest looking back hand tenis shot at the waist and knocked the puck into the net, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Seven minutes later Tampa Bay tied the game back up. There was nothing Tim Thomas could do. Lightning center Eric Perrin slammed a very hard slapshot right past Thomas. I couldn't even see the puck during the slow motion replay. So the period ended with the Bruins up 1-1.

The second period was very fun to watch. Four minutes into the period, the Bruins were on the power play when Eric Perrin stole the puck and passed it to Martin St. Louis who was right next to the goal. St. Louis, who played hockey with Thomas at the university of Vermont, scored easily, and the Lightning took a 2-1 lead off of a shorthanded goal.

Towards the end of the period, the Lightning were on the power play in the Bruins zone when Zdeno Chara attempted to clear the puck. His clear attempt was blocked at the blue line by a Tampa defenseman. Patrice Bergeron then gathered the loose puck and skated down the ice with PJ Axelsson next to him. Bergeron then fed the puck to Axelsson in front of the net who lunged out his stick and tipped the puck upwards and into the net, tying the game at 2.

The Lightning took the lead in the third period when a huge defensive turnover led to a very easy Lightning goal. The Bruins tied the game back up again about a minute later though. Defenseman Jason York, just coming back from injury, won a battle in teh Lightning zone. Marc Savard then retrieved the puck behind the Lightning net. He managed to find Glen Murray right in front of the goal and Murray scored easily.

The game would go into overtime in which both teams had great scoring chances. The Bruins' scoring chance ended up with the Bruins player's (damn I can't think of the name) shot missing the net. The Lightning scoring opportunity ended on a great save by Thomas and the game went into a shootout.

The shootout went as followed:
B: Marco Sturm shootout saved
TB: Vincent Lecavalier shootout saved
B: Patrice Bergeron shootout saved
TB: Brad Richards shootout saved
B: Glen Murray shootout saved
TB: Martin St. Louis shootout saved
B: Marc Savard shootout saved
TB: Eric Perrin shootout saved
B: Brad Boyes shootout saved
TB: Vaclav Prospal shootout saved
B: Petr Tenkrat shootout saved
TB: Dmitry Afanasenkov shootout saved
B: Phil Kessel shootout goal
TB: Ruslan Fedotenko shootout saved


The rally caps worked again! Thomas saved 7 shots, and the rookie Phil Kessel scored the only shootout goal.

Also, Paul Mara skated a little bit this morning. He is going to make the trip to Carolina and Montreal and will be a game time decision.