The Bruins couldn’t clear the zone. Ondrej Palat finished the job. This series is tied.
Palat knocked one home 4:40 into overtime, lifting the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-3 win in a punch-counterpunch Game 2 Tuesday night in Toronto that left both teams trying to recover for a Game 3 coming in about 21 hours.
“I don’t know any other way to look at it,” Bruins forward Sean Kuraly said of the challenge ahead. “We like our game plan. We like our team.”
They didn’t like the finish. The fourth line had two chances to clear the zone. Jaroslav Halak couldn’t glove a shot and stop the bleeding.
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For puck-watchers in New England, the focus immediately shifted to Halak, who stopped 36 of 40 shots. The 35-year-old, who replaced absent ace Tuukka Rask, most recently assumed the postseason mantle five years ago. If he cannot go in Game 3, former third-stringer Dan Vladar would make his NHL debut.
“I feel fine,” Halak said, saying he looked forward to a good night’s rest. “No one said it was going to be an easy series.”
Tampa Bay struck the final blow on its 86th shot attempt, Palat finding room under Halak’s glove. The Lightning had the better of play for most of the night (shots: 40-25; scoring chances: 33-26; high-danger shots: 15-6) and dominated overtime, outshooting Boston, 9-1.
“We had good looks,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, who said he would sleep on his goaltending decision. “We didn’t have the volume of attempts. We had point-blanks in the slot … There wasn’t the quantity of plays, like our tying goal.”
The Bruins sent it to OT thanks to the timely work of Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, and … Kuraly, who is just as much of a puck hound as Patrice Bergeron.
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The Bruins hunting for the tying goal in the final minutes of the third, Pastrnak forced a turnover in the slot and fed an open Kuraly, who was stuck out for a long shift. He calmly sent the biscuit to Marchand, who didn’t miss at the doorstep.
Tie game, 3-3, with 3:58 left in regulation.
The Bruins would have loved a save on the 3-2 goal. They were already asking Halak to do too much.
Halak, whose excellent work extended the Bolts’ power-play outage to 0 for 15, gave up Blake Coleman’s second goal of the night at 10:40 of the third. The Tampa grinder sneaked behind Zdeno Chara and Connor Clifton and finished a brilliant stretch pass from defenseman Victor Hedman with a changeup of a shot, partially blocked by a late-arriving Clifton.
The game was 1-1 after one, 2-2 after two, 3-3 after three, and a heavy game throughout.
The Bruins went ahead almost by accident, when Tampa defenseman Zach Bogosian busted his stick on a shot attempt at the point. The Anders Bjork-Charlie Coyle-Nick Ritchie line rush the other way, and Ritchie was credited with his first playoff goal since 2017 (with Anaheim) at 3:14 of the first. Tampa was upset with the hacking in front, but netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy never had the puck covered.
A team’s video review staff isn’t often mentioned. But the Bruins’ Mathew Myers and Hunter Cherni deserved a shout-out in Game 2. Before Barclay Goodrow’s would-be tying deflection 5:04 into the first, they noticed Tampa was a hair offside. Brayden Point, at the end of his shift, was guilty of gliding out of the zone as Palat hustled in. Myers and Cherni saw the violation and risked the minor penalty by telling Cassidy to challenge.
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Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper, minutes after his team went down by a goal on a bad break, was not convinced. Cameras caught him apparently shouting, “You [expletive] guessed!” at officials.
Bogosian got it back in stunning fashion, creating one of the prettiest goals of this postseason. The veteran blue liner, not known for his offensive prowess, beat Torey Krug on a rush into the zone. Krug’s partner, Brandon Carlo, provided little help. Bogosian slid a pass to Coleman, who turned on the jets, dived, and chipped one underneath Halak’s pads.
When was the last time Bogosian did that?
“Probably yesterday,” he said, smiling. As in, during practice.
The Bruins survived a second period in which they went some eight minutes without a shot. After Clifton drew a high-stick on an undisciplined Palat, the Bruins needed 19 seconds to improve to 7 for 24 on the power play in the playoffs.
Pastrnak had the puck in the left circle, and sent a pass to the net through Erik Cernak’s legs. Who was it for: Bergeron in the bumper, or Marchand at the far post? It didn’t much matter, since Marchand trapped it with his skates and deflected it home at 14:33 of the second.
The only Bruins left winger with more career playoff goals than Marchand (37) is Johnny Bucyk (40). Marchand passed Ken Hodge and Don Marcotte for ninth on the Bruins’ all-time list of playoff strikes, and ranks sixth in points (94), passing Bobby Orr.
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Just 56 seconds later, Point held the puck and battled away from Clifton — helped by a pick from Pat Maroon — and pivoted away from Coyle to open up space. Point fed Kevin Shattenkirk for a shot, yet another example of the Bolts’ blue-liners pounding the net. Nikita Kucherov tipped it past Halak.
Another swing of many in Game 2. More to come in Game 3.
“It’s going to be a battle,” Marchand said. “No excuses come playoff time.”
Matt Porter can be reached at matthew.porter@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyports
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Bruins get stuck in their zone, lose Game 2 in overtime - The Boston Globe
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