Tampa Bay Lightning’s defensive lack ends their winning streak with a loss against Boston Bruins
Tampa Bay Lightning had won 8 consecutive games in the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs prior to their encounter against the Boston Bruins at TD Gardens on Tuesday, May 17th. Tampa Bay had won their first game against Boston but their winning streak
ended on Tuesday night. The second game against the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Finals witnessed the Bruins finding holes in Lightning’s defence, hence, Bruins won the game by 6-5 and levelled the series on 1-1.
The end of Tampa Bay’s winning streak raised questions over their defensive capabilities, as they reach this crucial stage in the playoffs.
"We didn't stick to our structure", centre, Steven Stamkos, said. "That wins us games and that makes us lose games. Whether we are on or we're off, that's the difference in the game. Give them credit -- they came out strong and played well, but we shouldn't
have put ourselves in that position".
Tampa Bay Lightning’s coach, Guy Boucher, said that it is not a big deal that the team had a bad night after eight superb outgoings, but this does not imply that the team will not reflect over its errors and shortfalls in the game.
Bruins dominated the game from the start as they made 18 shots in total during the first period, converting one to a goal, while restricting Lightning to their half for a major part of the period.
However, Lightning’s brilliance was reflective of their ability to deal with these attacks and come up with regular turn-overs, coupled with the fact that Lightning scored twice in the first period to lead 1-2 as the first period ended.
“I thought we got a couple of maybe unnecessary penalties and maybe to give them a little bit of momentum, but that is part of it sometimes”, captain, Vinny Lecavalier, said.
Lightning seemed to be the more offensive team in the second period with 15 shots compared to Boston’s 9. However, they could not capitalize on these shots, scoring only 1 goal while the Bruins scored 5 by the end of the second period and left Lightning
stunned by their impressive shooting.
Lightning’s goalkeeper, Dwayne Roloson, was also not in his best form as he allowed five goals out of nine shots fired at him. Four of the goals were well worked by the Bruins while one was scored during a power-play.
Nevertheless, the final period saw the Lightning coming up with a much better defence and offence. They scored twice and didn’t allow any goals but fell short by a single goal as the Bruins won the game 6-5 to level the series, 1-1.
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