Boston shows its class against Tampa Bay

by Gary Shelton on November 22, 2022

in general

Paul celebrates first goal./TIM WIRT

Tuesday, 4 a.m.

Oh, so that's why the Boston Bruins are the best team in the NHL.

And that's why the Tampa Bay Lightning are not.

The Bruins overwhelmed the Lightning in the second period of Monday night's game, cruising to a 5-3 victory that kept them on top of the league. The Bruins are now 17-2 on the season.

They have electric offense, solid defense and outstanding goaltending. All of it was better than the Lightning's answers. Together, it left the Lightning looking disorganized for a period.

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Vasilevskiy had a tough night./TIM WIRT

The Bruins had 18 takeaways (to just three for the Bolts) to continue to roll over the league. Patrice Bergeron had an assist for his 1,000th point of his career, one of just four Boston players (including Lightning founder Phil Esposito) to reach the barrier.

The Bolts were actually good in the first period, getting off 14 shots. However, they scored just once off of Linus Ullmark, who has been the league's best goaltender (13 wins) to date. In the second period, Boston was the team with 14 shots, and they scored three times. Two of the goals came 31 seconds apart.

“Penalties, turnovers, a little bit of structure," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the poor second period. "In the end, they weathered a little bit of our storm in the first period and they got of it 1-1. They throw us their storm, and it’s 4-1. There’s the difference in them game.

"We couldn’t kill the penalties off we needed to. And then some turnovers and some bad tracks and not protecting areas of the ice. By then it’s too little too late. That’s why they're an elite team in the league. When it didn’t go their way, they kept it together and stuck with it. When it didn’t go our way, we didn’t handle it that well."

Nick Paul had two goals for Tampa and newcomer Rudolphs Balcers had his first for the Lightning.

Tampa Bay is home on Friday night against St. Louis at 8 p.m.

Perry’s (10) goal is disallowed for high-sticking./TIM WIRT

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