Tampa Bay Lightning end seven-game losing streak by beating Boston Bruins, 5-3 – NHL Update
Finally, the Tampa Bay Lightning have snapped their increasing losing streak after seven games, and did it with some style!
The Lightning struck down hard and crushed the second ranked team in the National Hockey League's (NHL) Eastern Conference, Boston Bruins, 5-3, thanks to Vincent Lecavalier, Tom Pyatt, Ryan Malone, Dominic Moore and Steven Stamkos, on Tuesday, January 17, 2012, at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida.
"We played a good team and really responded", Stamkos commented after the victory. "That was the game plan, to come out hard, come out physical. We did that for pretty much the whole 60 minutes, and that's the result that we get".
Tampa Bay was displaying signs of a different team altogether right from the start as they scored early in the game and did not surrender until the end.
At 7:11 in the first period, Lecavalier, who was present in the opponent’s defensive zone, backhanded to strike the puck into the net.
The Bruins replied to equalise the score in the second period.
Nathan Horton beat the defensemen and fired the puck towards the net.
Lightning’s goalie, Mathieu Garon dealt with the strike, but the puck rebounded off his pad and landed once again under the stick of Horton, who made no mistake this time and scored his 15th goal of the 2011-2012 NHL regular season.
Nearly 10 minutes after the goal, Lightning once again gained the lead.
Steve Downie’s shot was blocked by the goalie, but Tom Pyatt fell on the rink, stretched his arm holding the stick, pushing the puck into the net.
Horton came in action once again. He provided an equaliser yet again and brought the score to 2-2.
At 16:44, David Krejci won a face-off against Lecavalier and sent the puck to Andrew Ference, who struck it towards the goal, but his shot was blocked by Bruno Gervais. The puck got to Horton and he struck it into the net once again.
Lightning took the lead back in the third period when Ryan Malone scored a goal at 4:58. He was assisted by Moore and Nate Thompson.
The Bruins, despite being shorthanded, levelled the score again, and it was done rather easily.
Daniel Paille got the control of the puck and beat his guards to come one-on-one against the goalie, who was handsomely defeated.
At 16:15, Moore scored to put the Lightning in charge for good. After his goal, Stamkos scored in the final minute to increase the deficit, taking the score to 5-3.
"Our compete level isn't there", Boston's coach, Claude Julien, regretted. "We're no better and no worse than any other team when we don't compete. We become a very ordinary team, and that's what we are right now".
The Bruins are now going to take on New Jersey Devils on Thursday, while Lightning would try to build on the momentum against Dallas Stars on Friday.
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