Tampa Bay Lightning misses too many opportunities against the Boston Bruins in Game 5 – NHL
Tampa Bay Lightning came up with an impressive performance against Boston Bruins in the fourth game of the Eastern Conference Finals that it won 5-3, even though Bruins was leading by 3-0 at the end of the first period.
The game left Bruins with numerous questions as to what went wrong in the game.
They seemed to have learned from their mistakes in the fifth game, winning it at the TD Garden by 3-1 to get back into a series lead. Now, Lightning faces similar questions and needs to reflect on their weaknesses since they were leading at the end of the first period.
"That's the way you feel you know", Simon Gagne said when asked if this was a lost opportunity. "You feel that that game was up in the air for both teams”.
Steven Stamkos added, "Yeah, it is tough. You don't win when you deserve to all the time and that's the playoffs. The ones you deserve to win you should win and you have to win to be successful in the playoffs. We've been on both ends of the spectrum and we can't look at it like that right now. We've got to learn from that and regroup”.
Lightning will be pondering over the countless opportunities they missed during the first period while they were the dominating force, making 14 shots on goal compared to 4 made by Bruins. However, disappointingly they could only manage one goal in the whole period.
Lightning was on top in the final period as well, leading the period with 11 shots on goal while the Bruins made eight, but once again Bruins’ goal keeper, Tim Thomas, came up with a splendid effort that ensured Bruins wouldn’t lose on home ice.
Lightning came across some easy scoring opportunities during the final period as well but their lack of productivity up front resulted in the team not being able to score.
There wasn’t a single game in the series in which Thomas displayed such a brilliant and skillful performance. In Game 5, Thomas showed a completely different side to him and played a key role in guiding Bruins to victory. He denied Lightning a number of times and was one of the major factors behind Lightning’s inability to capitalize on their scoring opportunities.
Lightning has also been unsuccessful in converting their power-plays into productive periods. It was the best team when it came to power-plays during the first two rounds but in this series, they have managed to score in only 2 out of 18 power-plays coming their way.
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