Boston Bruins

Dreadful Period Dooms Bruins (Again) In Loss To Lightning

Published

1 month ago

March 15, 2025

Andrew Fantucchio

Boston Hockey Now/Andrew Fantucchio

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning by the final of 6-2 on Saturday night at TD Garden.

As was the case in their last game Thursday night in Ottawa, it all came apart for the Bruins in the span of just 20 minutes. Only this time, it was much worse than before and far more than ever imaginable.

Boston completely lost its grip on the game in the second period, getting outshot 19-0 while attempting just three shots total to Tampa’s 41.

“It is very frustrating, especially not even having a shot [on goal]the whole whole period,” said Pavel Zacha. “We can’t play like that. It’s embarrassing.”

#NHLBruins are down 4-1 at the end of what was, without a doubt, their worst collective period of the season.

SOG in the second: 19-0 Tampa

A lot of loud boos as they head off for the intermission.

— Andrew Fantucchio (@A_Fantucchio) March 16, 2025

Tampa broke a 1-1 tie a little over two minutes into the frame with a goal from Nick Paul that came after the Bruins had spent the entire shift chasing their own tails in the defensive end. Anthony Cirelli made it a two-goal advantage when he deflected a shot past Jeremy Swayman at the 7:22 mark.

To that point, Swayman couldn’t be faulted for any of the goals he allowed. That changed with three minutes left until the intermission when a pedestrian-esque wrist shot from Darren Raddysh beat him clean, flying by him and into the back of the net without him ever even seeing it.

It wasn’t until the horn blared at the end of the period that the Bruins, at long last, were given mercy. But even then, you couldn’t hear it, as it was drowned out by a cascade of boos.

“It was unacceptable,” Elias Lindholm said. “We deserved to get booed. That second period is the worst I’ve seen us play this year.”

Nonetheless, Swayman was far from the biggest problem in this game for Boston as he finished the night with 33 saves on 37 shots against, without much help from the defense in front of him.

Marat Khusnitdinov scored his second goal in a Bruins uniform 23 seconds into the third period. That was as close as Boston got before Cirelli and Brandon Hagel tacked on a pair of empty net goals to close out the game for the Lightning.

The Bolts struck first at 2:22 of the first period. With the Bruins’ defense collapsing in its own zone, Raddysh’s shot from the point ricocheted off the mass of bodies in front of the net. Amid the chaos, Victor Hedman swooped in, collected the loose puck and punched it in for the opening tally

Boston evened the score with just over four minutes remaining in the period. As Andrew Peeke flew through the middle of the ice, he drew the attention of two Tampa defenders while he skated over the blue line. Once inside the attacking end, he whipped a pass over to the slot that Lindholm hammered past Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy for his first goal in nine games and 12th of the season.

Elias Lindholm ties things up. A great feed from Andrew Peeke.

1-1 game. pic.twitter.com/VBOs0oADWu

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) March 15, 2025

The loss drops the Bruins’ record to 30-29-8. They are now 2-2-0 since the NHL trade deadline and remain two points out of the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference with 15 games left on their schedule.

“In the first two games, we were hunting pucks, had a lot of energy and were hard to play against,” said Lindholm. “The last two were nowhere close to those two games. The other team is winning way more 50-50 pucks. Our compete level is not where it’s supposed to be. It’s frustrating this time of the year when the least we can do is work hard and have a good effort.”

The Bruins will host the Buffalo Sabres Monday night before setting out on a five-game road trip next week.