Burns: 3 Things we learned from shutting out Boston

Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said it best after Tampa Bay's 4-0 shutout victory over the Boston Bruins Tuesday at AMALIE Arena.
"The first two periods was some of the best hockey we played all year and the third period we did a good job of shutting them down," Hedman summarized in the locker room following maybe the Bolts' biggest win of the season.

Tampa Bay put together one of its most complete efforts to defeat the Bruins for the first time in four tries this season. The win moves the Bolts level with the Bruins on points in the race for the Atlantic Division championship and top seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs, although Boston still owns the tiebreaker currently having played one last game.
The Lightning absolutely had to beat Boston in game No. 80 of the regular season to have any shot to overtake the Bruins in the standings.
Check.
Now they need to close out the season strong Friday in the home regular season finale against Buffalo and Saturday in the overall finale at Carolina and get a little help from the Bruins too.
But the division and conference crowns are still up grabs.
And the Lightning showed how much they want both by virtue of their effort against the Bruins.
The Bolts finally solved the Bruins on Tuesday. How'd they do it? We'll explain in Three Things we learned from blanking Boston.

1. FIRST GOAL WAS KEY
The Lightning dominated the first period, Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy saying after the game his team was "clearly outplayed" over the first 20 minutes.
The Bolts outshot Boston 17-8 in the opening frame and had several opportunities to get on the scoreboard. There were missed opportunities on open nets. Clear path shots that were wide or high of the target. Or shots that were saved off the line by players other than Boston goalie Tuukka Rask, like when Patrice Bergeron got in front of the net to deny Nikita Kucherov on what looked to be a sure goal on a rebound.
The Lightning probably should have led 2-0 or 3-0 heading into the first intermission.
Instead, the game was still scoreless.
No doubt, that had to weigh on the minds of the Lightning, who had yet to beat Boston this season or even hold a lead against the Bruins at any point this season. The start of the second continued the way the first ended, but early in the period, Brian Gionta appeared to net the game's first goal on a scramble in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy's net.
Fortunately for the Bolts, the goal didn't count. Gionta brought the puck down out of the air with a high stick before settling it on the ice and shooting past Vasilevskiy. The refs made the call immediately, and the game remained scoreless.
A little over five minutes into the second, Brayden Point unleashed a shot from beyond the right circle that found its way past Rask to finally give the Lightning the lead they desperately wanted (and deserved).
"I'm not sure if it got deflected or what not, but I think it dropped on him," Point said. "I was just trying to put pucks on net. You never know when you put the puck on the net if it's going to go in."
Going in front seemed to lift the Lightning. They continued to control play in the second period and put two more past Rask to take command.
Tampa Bay entered Tuesday's game having surrendered the opening goal in their last five games. Not surprisingly, they were just 1-4-0 over those five.
Getting the first goal against Boston was an absolutely crucial component to their victory.

2. VASILEVSKIY RETURNS TO FORM
After getting off to a tremendous start to the season, Andrei Vasilevskiy has found the going a bit more difficult over the last month or so.
Vasilevskiy came into the Boston contest having lost five of his last seven starts, giving up 27 goals combined over those seven, an average of 3.86 per game.
The Bolts needed one of those early-season performances from Vasilevskiy almost as much for their confidence as his.
Tuesday, Vasilevskiy stepped up with one of his best outings of the season, stopping all 33 shots he faced for his eighth shutout and 43rd win of the season.
"He was unbelievable," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said after the game.
The five in front of Vasilevskiy were pretty good too, limiting the Bruins to just a handful of quality scoring chances and putting together one of their best overall defensive efforts of the season.
"It's been awhile since we played a full 60 minutes like that," Bolts forward Ryan Callahan said. "What I like the most is that we defended. We were above. We didn't give up any odd man rushes. We defended really well in our end even when they had some pressure in our end."
Vasilevskiy picked up his 84th career victory in the win over Boston -- also his first-ever victory against the Bruins - to pass Nikolai Khabibulin for the second-most wins in Lightning history.
Vasilevskiy's eighth shutout also set a Lightning franchise record for most shutouts in a season, passing Khabibulin.
"He's such a good goalie, and when he's on his game, it's really hard to beat him," Point said. "Even in practice when he's on his game, it almost seems impossible. He deserves all the accolades he gets."

3. BREAKING THE BOSTON HEX
Lightning players downplayed the importance of beating Boston before the playoffs, even with the very real possibility of playing the Bruins in the second round of the postseason should both teams advance.
Still, it had to feel cathartic to finally prove they could beat the Bruins. In the first two matchups between the two teams, the Lightning were outclassed.
Tampa Bay played an effective second and third period in Boston during the last contest with the Bruins six days ago, but a late collapse in the first period in which it gave up two goals proved to be too much to overcome in a 4-2 defeat.
Certainly there had to be some doubt creeping into the team's mind as to whether they were ever going to beat the Bruins again, having lost four in a row and eight of their last nine in the series.
The win Tuesday was not only uplifting because the Bolts finally got a positive result against the Bruins but because they thoroughly outplayed them in every phase of the game.
"Nobody wants to go through a season getting swept by anybody, especially somebody that you're fighting for a division title," Cooper said. "But as I said before, the game before this set it up. I thought the first two times we played them, they kind of manhandled us a little bit. But they didn't the last time in their building. And to just continue on and say, 'Okay, you know what, those first three periods are over with, let's get these next three.' And they just carried that on. Probably psyche-wise, good for the guys knowing that our work, our structure, all that stuff paid off. Hopefully, it just continues for us."