TAMPA – The Bruins had to fight through a couple of questionable things that went down on the ice starting the series on the road, and they did that and then some in the first game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Bruins managed to shred the Lightning defense and closed with a couple of goals in the third period en route to a 6-2 win over the Bolts in Game 1 at Amalie Arena. Both Patrice Bergeron and Rick Nash scored two goals each and Tuukka Rask rebounded from a shaky Game 7 vs. Toronto with 30 saves in the resounding victory for the Black and Gold.
The victory gives the Bruins home ice advantage through the best-of-seven playoff series provided they can hold serve on their own home ice and authors a pretty authoritative first impression against a Lightning team they’ve owned over the last couple of seasons.
One of the biggest plays of the game was a second-period goal for Mikhail Sergachev that whistled into the net as Tuukka Rask was arguing for a whistle with a broken skate blade in the crease. Sergachev scored while Rask pleaded his case, and then the Bruins goaltender gunned the skate blade into the side boards near the penalty boxes in frustration.
Nash opened up the scoring in the first with a power-play goal deflection off a David Pastrnak point shot, and then Bergeron made it a two-goal lead when he finished off a nasty Pastrnak no-look pass to open the second period. Dan Girardi scored for the Lightning to halve the lead, and a potential Marchand goal was wiped off the boards when Pastrnak took a cross-checking penalty that kept Boston’s momentum at bay.
Nash scored again after the Bruins killed off the Pastrnak penalty, and Sergachev closed out the scoring in the second period with his goal as Rask hobbled around in his crease with one of his skate blades busted. That led to a third period where the Bruins simply took over the game with goals from Marchand and Bergeron before Jake DeBrusk scored an empty-netter with the Lightning desperately trying to get back into the game.