Pastrnak’s Two Goals Not Enough, Bruins Fall 4-3 To Lightning In Shootout

BOSTON – Despite another two goals from forward David Pastrnak, the Boston Bruins lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in a shootout as Lightning captain Steven Stamkos beat Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask in the Lightning’ final chance of the first round. The win pulled the Lightning (4-2-1, 9 points) to two points behind the Bruins who fell to 5-1-1 (11 points) on the season.

Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all four Bruins shooters in the shootout and finished the game with 33 saves. Rask stopped three of four Lightning shooters in the shootout and finished with 34 saves.

Pastrnak stayed hot and finished the game with two goals and two assists, Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists and Brad Marchand and Torey Krug each had two helpers for the Bruins.

Just as he did in the 4-2 win over the Ducks Monday, Pastrnak got things going for the Bruins Thursday when he took a Bergeron feed at the doorstep and beat Vasilevskiy for a 1-0 Bruins lead 9:34 into the first period. Bruins defenseman Torey Krug had the secondary helper.

The goal extended Pastrnak’s point streak to four games and with the tally he also became just the third Bruin in team history to score five straight team goals. With the assist, Bergeron extended his point streak to six games.

After a solid first 19 minutes of the game, the Bruins got a bit lackadaisical in the final minute and paid for it as Point evened the score at three with .8 of a second left in the period. Yanni Gourde and Victor Hedman had the assists and the two teams went into the first intermission knotted at one.

The Bruins power play struck again 7:26 into the middle frame as Pastrnak returned the favor to Bergeron and the Bruins top center beat Vasilevskiy from the slot to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead with his second goal of the season. Brad Marchand extended his point streak to six games with the secondary assist.

The Bolts didn’t take long to strike back though as Joseph beat Rask at 10:32 to tie the game at two. Alex Killorn and Erik Cernak has the assists and the two teams stayed deadlocked until Shattenkirk gave the Lightning their first lead at 15;13. Point and Steven Stamkos got the helpers.

Pastrnak’s second goal and the Bruins third power play goal at 16:55 saw Krug and Marchand each get their second assists of the game.