Tampa Bay Lightning grab easy Game 1 against Boston Bruins 5-2 in Conference Finals – NHL Playoffs
The Tampa Bay Lightning grabbed their eighth straight victory in the post-season as they defeated the Boston Bruins 5-2, easily in Game one of the National Hockey League (NHL) play-off Eastern Conference Finals at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on
Saturday, May 14.
The Lightning fans back in Tampa Bay must have gone wild with joy as their team continues to dominate some of the top contenders in the post-season as if they were the top team of the NHL coming into the series. It all started back in the quarter-finals
when Tampa Bay was down 3-1 after game four against the Pittsburgh Penguins, they came back and won the next three consecutive to take the series. Their winning streak continued into the semi-finals as they router the top team of the Eastern Division, the
Washington Capitals in a 4-0 clean elimination.
Tampa Bay’s playing style which includes top-notch defence and unmatchable chemistry in the line-up managed to live up and work miracles for them in the first game against a pumped up Boston Bruins who are also coming out of their own 4-0 elimination against
the Philadelphia Flyers.
Sean Bergenheim opened the scoring for the Lightning a little over the mid-way mark of the first period which eventually sparked a shooting spree as Brett Clark and Teddy Purcell both scored a goal within the next 1:25. It was Bergenheim’s eighth of the
post-season while Clark finally added his first following Purcell with his second.
Boston’s rookie centre Tyler Seguin, who was surprisingly added to the Boston starting line-up since Patrice Bergeron was injured in the last series game six match-up, scored his first of the play-offs in his first game, shocking all that were against the
decision to play the 19-year-old. After a scoreless second period, Tampa Bay was excited entering the third period ahead 3-1 and at the same time amused with the look on Boston’s crowd faces.
Marc-Andre Bergeron extended the Tampa Bay lead late in the third period for his second of the post-season on Boston’s first penalty of the final 20 minutes. Johnny Boychuk was booked for roughing Vincent Lecavalier, giving them another added man advantage.
After Bergeron’s extending goal, Simon Gagne secured an already insured match-up with his third goal of the play-offs on an empty net with 2:30 remaining. Johnny Boychuk came back with a minute left and scored to bring down the deficit to within three goal’s
reach but the whole stadium knew it was impossible to catch-up by then.
Tampa Bay goalie Dwayne Roloson and Boston counterpart Tim Thomas both faced 33 shots at the net as they saved 31 and 29 shots respectively. Both teams have more than enough time to rest as game two of the Eastern Conference Finals is set for Tuesday May
17.
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