Bruins’ David Pastrnak calls overtime penalty ‘a joke’

Boston looked like they had the game in the bag after taking a 5-1 lead early in the second period. Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel opened the scoring with just 11 seconds into the game. However, lex Steeves broke a 15-game goal drought with a one-timer at 11:24 of the first period to tie the game 1-1. Morgan Geekie deflected a Charlie McAvoy shot at 15:36 to give Boston a 2-1 advantage, and Viktor Arvidsson converted a power-play tip-in from McAvoy at 18:03 to make it 3-1. Matthew Poitras scored his first goal of the season at 2:22 into the second, and Geekie’s second one-timer at 8:18 made it 5-1.

Defying the odds, the Lightning erased the gap with four consecutive goals, completing the franchise’s inaugural four-goal rally from behind. Oliver Bjorkstrand cut the lead to 5-2 on a power-play goal at 10:28 of the second, followed by Darren Raddysh and Nick Paul scoring within 23 seconds on a 5-on-3 in the second period. Nikita Kucherov tied the game 5-5 with a one-timer at 11:50 of the third. Tampa Bay won the game in a shootout, with Jake Guentzel scoring the only shootout goal.

The matchup also featured a historic first NHL outdoor goalie fight between the Bruins Jeremy Swayman and Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy following a minor scuffle involving Hagel. Swayman stopped 41 shots, while Vasilevskiy made 29 saves, improving his record to 14-0-1 in his last 15 starts. Boston took 11 penalties, allowing three power-play goals on eight chances.

Other Bruins contributors included McAvoy with two assists and Geekie, who with three points (two goals, one assist), carried his seven-game point streak to 11 points. Meanwhile, the Lightning’s Kucherov had a goal and three assists, while Raddysh added to his four-game goal streak, setting a franchise record for a defenseman.

Boston kept their point streak alive at six games (4-0-2) despite the defeat. They’ll try to regain momentum against the Florida Panthers on Wednesday, their last game before the Olympic break.