Bruins Drop Back-and-Forth Battle in Tampa

TAMPA - Brad Marchand and Pavel Zacha scored but the Bruins fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-2, on Thursday night at Amalie Arena in what felt like a primer for the postseason.Victor Hedman notched the winner for Tampa with 6:41 remaining on a bizarre play in which Brandon Carlo collided with Linus Ullmark, knocking the netminder to the ice, which allowed the Tampa blue liner to have somewhat of an empty net in which to blast home a one-timer from the left-wing boards.
"We know every team is gonna give us their best now," said David Krejci. "They look at us as a statement game. We talk about it a lot, we try to get ready for every game. Today was tough. It's gonna be tough. They're a good team. I thought we played solid road hockey, it just wasn't good enough."

More news and notes from the B's sixth regulation loss of the season:
A Back-and-Forth Affair:Boston, which had won the previous two matchups against Tampa this season, twice battled back to tie the game after falling into one-goal deficits. After Brandon Hagel gave Tampa a 1-0 lead on the power play at 10:42 of the first, the Lightning held on to the one-goal advantage for an extended stretch before Brad Marchand tied the game with just 3:02 to go in the second.
The Bruins displayed some elite puck possession before the goal as they switched out three of their four skaters during a 4-on-4 situation in the Tampa end. Marchand changed for David Pastrnak and took a feed from Connor Clifton, before burying a wrister from the top of the left-wing circle.
"I told Pasta, it was an incredible change by him," said Marchand. "I was surprised he changed. In the O-zone, 4-on-4, that's where he thrives. Very, very unselfish for him to come off and we probably wouldn't have scored that if he stayed out there."

A Controversial Call: Boston fell behind, 2-1, just 58 seconds into the third when Brayden Point struck for his 28th of the season. The tally came directly off a faceoff win for Tampa, which the Bruins felt should've been prevented by the officials. Krejci, while saying that he needed to see more of the replay, felt that Steven Stamkos should've been tossed from the dot before the puck was dropped.
"I didn't see the replay, but I felt that he went straight for my stick before the puck touched the ice," said Krejci. "You're not allowed to do that, I've gotten kicked out for that many times. I don't want to accuse the ref. That's how I felt But I haven't seen it yet."
Nevertheless, Krejci's line responded just 1:26 later when some nifty work from Pastrnak and Krejci got the puck to Pavel Zacha, who one-timed a blast by Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to knot things, 2-2, at 2:24 of the third period.
"The shift before we got scored on so we wanted to get it back really badly," said Krejci. "It was nice to get it back. We're trying to create some chances. I thought there were a couple times maybe we overpassed it, but it is what it is. Just try to be better creating those chances next game and make it a little more simple."

McAvoy Escapes Damage:Early in the third period, Charlie McAvoy, while battling for a loose puck with Nick Perbix by the left-wing circle, lost his balance and went careening - at full speed - into the end boards. McAvoy was down for a few moments and retreated to the Bruins' dressing room but returned only several minutes later and finished the game.
"Yes, he's a warrior," said Montgomery. "Glad he came back. I think that's the biggest positive in the game. He went hard into those boards and he's healthy so that's good."
Clifton Drops the Gloves: Late in the first period, Clifton and veteran Tampa forward Corey Perry dropped the gloves after the duo traded jabs in the moments leading up to the bout. Clifton took an elbow to the head from Perry in the corner before Clifton delivered a cross-check to Perry behind the Bruins' net - both of which went uncalled by the officials.
"It was fine, they were letting a lot go and that's fine," said Clifton. "They let my cross-check go right after…he came at me. I was ready to go because I was about to change…I kind of waited and dropped my gloves. He didn't and I was like, 'Oh' and kind of backed off a little and let him get rid of his. But it was good, it was fine. They missed an elbow and they missed a cross-check. One-for-one, I guess. We squared it away."
Ullmark Immense Once Again: Despite suffering just his third regulation loss of the season, Boston's ace netminder (25-3-1) made 32 saves as he continued his stellar season with yet another outstanding showing.
"I thought he did great," said Montgomery. "I thought he made a lot of saves look easy. He was in such good position. Vasilevskiy played great too. He made a lot of high quality saves as well. It was a playoff type game."