After a see saw opening period, Boston dominated the second period in Tampa, last night. I went to bed thinking the Bolts were going to lose back to back games, something they haven't done since November 13th. Then I checked the score this morning.

 

In the first period, Brad "Lick Boy" Marchand sandwiched a goal between Steven Stamkos's 40th and 41st goals of the season. Tampa Bay led 2-1 after 1.

 

The second period was horrendous for the home team. In a span of 6 minutes, the Bruins scored 3 goals, including a 3 on 2 breakaway and Vasilevskiy fumbling a Marchand shot into the goal. Boston was up 4-2 at that point.

 

Then came the third period. The Bolts repeated their furious comeback pace that failed against the Blues, last time out. Stamkos got free on a breakaway and Victor Hedman planted the rebound 5 1/2 minutes into the period. Nikita Kucherov tied the game on a 2-2 rush with 6:45 to go. Then, with 57 second left, Anthony Cirelli shot a one timer past Boston goalie Tuuka Rask on a pass from Matheiu Joseph for the game winner.

 

Steven Stamkos, with 2 goals and 2 assists, led the team with 4 points. He has scored 40 or more goals in a season 5 times in his career.

 

It was a playoff atmosphere in Amalie, last night. This could be a preview of the 2nd round of the playoffs.

 

Tampa Bay has 5 games left.

I only caught the 3rd period and that's all I needed to see. Heck of an effort by the Bolts to come back and assert their authority. "Lick Boy" (lol) did the B's no favors by taking that stupid interference penalty late in the game that negated a man advantage for the B's to try and tie it up. Onward and upward, TB!