Another Poor Start Dooms Bruins in Game 3

BOSTON - The Bruins preached the need for a better start on Wednesday night.
After back-to-back opening period letdowns to begin their second-round series with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston was looking forward to a more lively start on home ice.
But the Black & Gold produced exactly the opposite.

The Bruins allowed two goals in the first 3:19 and trailed by two after the first period en route to a 4-1 loss to the Lightning in Game 3 at TD Garden. Boston now trails the best-of-seven series, 2-1, with Game 4 set for Friday night.
"It was a bad start and there's no question about it, " said Patrice Bergeron. "Obviously [they] jumped on us and scored some big goals and we couldn't get back in the game."

Tampa wasted little time quieting the Garden faithful when Ondrej Palat took advantage of a costly Bruins turnover high in the Boston end and beat Tuukka Rask (33 saves) for a 1-0 lead at 1:47 of the first period. Palat struck again just 1:32 later to open up a 2-0 Lightning advantage, leaving the Bruins chasing for the rest of the night.
"Obviously I think you can improve upon it," Riley Nash said of the start. "It wasn't a great start, one was kind of a bouncing puck, bounced to them. I think that just showed that we were on our heels a little bit. When we're on our toes going after them, that situation doesn't even arise. So being a little bit more on our toes going forward instead of retreating and backing up as much I think would be beneficial."
Boston showed some life late in the opening frame, when Patrice Bergeron connected off a David Pastrnak feed on the B's lone power play of the night to pull within a goal with 5:48 to go in the first.
But in what has become somewhat of a trend this postseason, the Bruins allowed a quick response from the Lightning. Just 2:31 after Bergeron's tally, Anthony Cirelli notched his first goal of the playoffs to regain a two-goal lead.
"It's 2-0, we've got half of that back, and then again we're not hard enough in front of our net, so now it's two goals again," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "I think the second and third goals, to me, are much worse [than the first] in terms of losing our zip or whatever word you use.
"Took the wind out of our sails. I'd say the third goal did more than anything. Even the second one, we got half of that back on the power play."

It was a deflating goal to surrender, one that opened up a deficit that was especially difficult to overcome given the Bruins were able to land just 15 shots on net over the final two periods, despite shoring up their defensive game.
"I think we expected to come back and make it an even tighter game, but they didn't really give us anything," said Rask. "We couldn't establish zone time out there too much…the game is kind of wild in the first period and then things settle down, I think that happened today."
Nevertheless, the Bruins remain a determined group as they look forward to Game 4 and a chance to even the series on Friday night.
"We'll be fine, we're still a confident group in here, like always," said Charlie McAvoy. "We won a lot of hockey games this year and there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to win a couple more. So assess the good, change the bad and get back to it on Friday."