Bruins Fall 2-1 to Lightning, ‘Have To Look at the Positives’

BOSTON –– The Boston Bruins fell 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday at TD Garden.

“We were hoping for a big day and afternoon here in Boston. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen,” head coach Marco Sturm said. “Again, we have to look at the positives. The positive for me is we still have two games left, still in our control. We’re going to get back at it tomorrow.”

Morgan Geekie scored the B’s only goal, and Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves in the hard-fought loss.

​“I think we have to play a full 60 [minutes]. It’s important, they’re a mature group over there, they have patience, and we just need to match that,” Swayman said. “It’s a game of mistakes right now. I thought we played a really good game, and we can take a lot of positives from it.”

After a buzzy and scoreless start in the first period, Geekie capitalized for the Bruins in the middle frame. Charlie McAvoy got the puck below the right circle in the defensive end and launched it up to Geekie, who burst out on a breakaway. The forward wristed it past Andrei Vasilevskiy for the 1-0 lead at 10:47.

​It was Geekie’s 38th goal of the season and fourth in two games. McAvoy picked up his 50th assist of the year – and third in two games – on the play.

“Chuck made a good play to get it up really quick. I just kind of saw their, I think it was a D-man, went for a change and just tried to get out as fast as I could,” Geekie said. “There were a lot of positives tonight; we kind of played our game. Obviously, we had our lapses like everybody does…It’s a good league, and we have to find a way to get two points.”

The Lightning came back in the third period. Brandon Hagel found the 1-1 equalizer for the Lightning at 6:37, and Emil Lilleberg scored the game-winning tally at 18:25.

The Bruins will skate in the second game of their back-to-back on Sunday against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. A win in any fashion will secure a playoff spot for Boston.

“Get a good recovery, get a protein shake, and move on to the next thing. It’s important for us to stay in the moment at this point, and I think we have a really good locker room that does that,” Swayman said. “We have great leadership, we have a mature mindset with that. It’s important for us to keep going. All we can focus on is another game tomorrow.”