Burns: 3 Things we learned from evening the series

In the buildup to Game 2 of Tampa Bay's Second Round playoff series against Boston, the Lightning talked about how they needed to increase their intensity level.
In Game 1, the Bruins, coming off a do-or-die Game 7 victory three nights earlier over Toronto, were much more engaged than a Tampa Bay team that had to sit and wait six days for their next playoff round.
"We'll make sure we don't make that mistake again," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said after Sunday's practice.
His team heard the message loud and clear.

The Lightning were the team dictating play in Game 2 due to the intensity and physical nature of their play. Rather than sitting back and countering what Boston was doing, they brought the fight to the Bruins.
The result?
A 4-2 Lightning victory and a tie series 1-1 heading to Boston for Games 3 and 4.
Monday's game wasn't necessarily a must-win for the Bolts.
But it was as close as a game could get without actually being one.
How did the Lightning prevail?
We'll dissect the action in Three Things we learned from leveling the Second Round series 1-1.

1. SCORING FIRST CHANGED THE GAME'S COMPLEXITY
In all four losses the Lightning have suffered this season to Boston, the Bruins have scored the game's first goal and forced the Bolts to chase them the rest of the way.
In Tampa Bay's two wins, including the Game 2 victory on Monday, the Lightning have scored first.
Clearly, netting the opening goal and playing with a lead will be a big factor in this series going forward.
Yanni Gourde broke through for the Lightning at 11:47 of the opening period, converting the Bolts' second power play of the game with his shot from the bottom of the left circle past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask.
Gourde's goal gave the Lightning a lead in the series for the first time.
"For us the big thing we talked about was let's get the lead and make them chase us instead of us having to chase them," Cooper said. "I thought that was huge. We gave it right back unfortunately, but we did get that second one. So, you've got to hopefully make them play a little different, make them chase you, make them press. They had to. We had some great looks. We had some unreal opportunities. They were blocking shots and their goalie was making saves, but it's much better playing with the lead than without."

2. PENALTY KILL SAVES THE DAY
After the Lightning went ahead 1-0, Boston was immediately gifted a 5-on-3 power play after Tyler Johnson was called for roughing at 14:02 of the first period and Ryan McDonagh followed with another roughing call :15 seconds later.
The Bruins own the top power play in the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs at 36.4 percent entering Game 1. Giving them nearly two full minutes with a two-man advantage is a situation where you're almost hoping to get out of it giving up just one goal.
The Lightning penalty kill had other ideas, however.
Led mainly by Victor Hedman, Dan Girardi and Ryan Callahan, the three-man group for the Bolts thwarted every Boston scoring chance. Hedman used his long reach to break up plays. Girardi got in passing lanes to deflect pucks away. And Callahan was sliding all over the ice to block any shot he could.
When their job was over and bot penalties were killed, Lightning fans inside AMALIE Arena rose to their feet in appreciation of the group's effort.
What looked like a situation where the Lightning would most certainly give up the tying score, the Lightning returned to full strength with their 1-0 lead still intact.
"Point's line did a great job tonight, as all our lines did, but if you're really going to break the game down, they got 1:45 of 5-on-3 and you need your goalie to be your best penalty killer but Ryan Callahan was right with him, just his sacrifice," Cooper said. "That's a tough job to have to be that guy that's got to go out there and do that. There's turning points in a game, that's early to be a turning point, but who knows how it goes if they score on that. It was just an outstanding effort by him. Once we got through that penalty kill, you could tell we were a confident group, and that was led by Ryan."
The Lightning penalty kill has seen a remarkable turnaround in the playoffs after finishing the regular season 28th out of 31 teams in the NHL. On Monday, the PK went 3-for-3, shutting down the vaunted Bruins power play.
But the early 5-on-3 kill set the special teams tone for the rest of the game and was an important moment in deciding the contest's outcome.
"It's pride to go out there and get picked as a guy to go out there and kill that and the other two D-men feel the same way," said Callahan, who was picked as the game's third star due mainly to his heroics on that 5-on-3 penalty kill. "To try to lift the team up and kill that off, it's tough with that long of a 5-on-3 but luckily it was a combined effort to get that killed and gave us a little bit of momentum there."
That momentum was derailed when Boston scored a few minutes later, Charlie McAvoy leveling the score 1-1 at 18:30 of the first.
But the effort the penalty kill gave not only on that two-man advantage but later in the game with the Bruins searching for the tying goal was crucial to the Bolts' victory.

3. SHUTDOWN LINE TURNS THE TIDE
The trio of Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point and Tyler Johnson were tasked before the series started with defending the Bruins' top line of David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand.
In Game 1, the Bolts' shutdown line was overmatched, the Pastrnak-Bergeron-Marchand trio accounting for 11 of the Bruins' 17 points, Palat-Point-Johnson combining to go minus-12.
Following Game 2, Cooper was asked if he gave any consideration to switching that line up considering how much they struggled in Game 1.
"Zero," Cooper replied.
Smart decision, coach.
The Palat-Point-Johnson trio rebounded in a big way in Game 2, the group effectively shutting down Boston's main point producers while accounting for two of the Lightning's four goals.
"We talked about trying to turn the page, that's what we had to do," Johnson said. "We had to realize that it was only one game. We can come back and we expect better from ourselves. I thought tonight we had a really good game as a line. I thought Point and Pally played outstanding, and if we continue to do that, we'll be good."
Johnson provided the go-ahead tally for the Lightning at 10:14 of the second period. Point raced to track down a puck into the offensive zone and put the brakes on to open up some space. Point spotted Johnson trailing and hit him in the slot, Johnson making a move to the right circle to get a clear shooting lane and beating Rask over his glove to make the score 2-1 Lightning.
"The puck was kind of rolling but I was able to get a shot off," Johnson said. "Tuukka tried to guess and went the wrong way, and it found a way in."
In the third with the Lightning still protecting the 2-1 lead, Point stole Marchand's pass as he tried to exit his own zone and slipped a short pass off to his side for Palat coming into the zone with speed. Palat beat Rask for what would prove to be the game-winning tally.
On Saturday, Boston's top line controlled play, and the Bruins were able to pull away as a result.
With that group shut down by the Lightning's defensive stalwarts on Monday, the Bruins had no other line to pick up the slack.
"I think we came out and we skated today," Point said.
The Bolts will need more of that as the series shifts to Boston.