In Game 2, Brayden Point was the hero and on Wednesday night as the best-of-7 series shifted to Boston, it was Ondrej Palat who sparked the Tampa Bay Lightning to victory.
Notice anything strange here?
If you guessed the answer was a question such as, ‘Where is Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and J.T. Miller?’ then you’d be on the right track.
Ondrej Palat has scored the winning goal in Game 2 and 3 of the series.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 3, 2018
Only two players in @TBLightning history have scored the winner in three consecutive team games within a postseason: Martin St. Louis in 2003 and Brad Richards in 2004. #NHLStats #TBLvsBOS #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/5zNWOJG7Ik
The line has a single goal so far in the series (Stamkos scored into the empty net to make Wednesday’s score a 4-1 final), yet the Lightning has rallied since a 6-2 loss in Game 1.
The reason? Secondary scoring, and a whole Palat of it.
It was Palat who scored twice in 1:32 early in the first period on Wednesday, his second and third goal in his past two games. Palat is up to four goals and eight points in eight games in the playoffs.
Both goals were all the Lightning needed as they kept the Bruins’ top line of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand at bay (Bergeron scored the lone goal for the Bruins on the night).
The line of Point, Palat and Tyler Johnson has sizzled over the past two games, combining for 10 points as a unit during that time.
Tampa’s second line has picked up the slack with the Bruins paying a lot of attention to Stamkos and Co. It hasn’t been a winning formula as of late, however.
Andrei Vasilevskiy put in another solid performance, turning aside 28-of-29 for the win.
Both teams lock horns again on Friday for Game 4. For the Bruins, a victory will be a must as teams that go up 3-1 in a series have an 89 percent chance of moving on, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
For Boston, avoiding being sent to the brink of eliminations means getting their top line up and running again (they had 11 points combined in Game 1) or finding some scoring from literally anyone else.
Outside of Game 1, the Bruins have been steadily misfiring and need to curb it quickly before the Atlantic Division champs make that impossible.
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck
