Mishkin's Extra Shift: Lightning 4, Bruins 3 - OT

The second and third periods of this game were very evenly-played. It was a different story in the first period and overtime session, however. The Lightning decisively dictated the action in the first. And, with the game on the line, they dominated OT before Ondrej Palat ended things with the winning goal at 4:40.

The Lightning wanted to have a better start than they did in Game One. And right from the opening shift, they played on their toes, forechecked the Bruins tenaciously, and owned the vast majority of the possession time. A couple of close calls and one unlucky break went against them, however, and cost them a chance to take a lead into the first intermission. During an offensive zone shift about three minutes into the game, Zach Bogosian broke his stick as he tried to play the puck at the right point. The Bruins countered. An Anders Bjork shot went wide of the net, but the puck ricocheted to the other side, where Nick Ritchie put it on net. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped the puck with his pad. The puck was underneath him, but the official didn't blow his whistle. Ritchie took two more jabs at the puck - the final one pushed the puck from under Vasilevskiy's pad and into the net. Blowing the play dead is at the discretion of the official. In this case, he decided not to. So despite the strong start, the Lightning, after a broken stick and a call that didn't go their way, were down, 1-0.
Minutes later, the Lightning thought they had tied it. Barclay Goodrow deflected in a shot from Braydon Coburn. The Bruins challenged the goal, however, claiming that, during a delayed off-side shortly before the goal, Goodrow entered the offensive zone before Brayden Point left it. It was a razor thin margin and had no bearing on the play. But it was offside and the goal came off the board.
Undaunted, the Lightning pressed on. And they did tie the game at 12:42, following a highlight reel rush from Bogosian. He stickhandled past both Boston defensemen and set up Blake Coleman in the slot. Coleman beat Jaroslav Halak through the pads and the game was tied. Before the period was done, the Lightning also successfully navigated through a penalty kill.
In that first period, Anthony Cirelli's line did an excellent job against Boston's top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak. Pastrnak did get loose twice for odd-man rush chances. But for much of the opening frame, Cirelli's line played with the puck in the offensive zone, forcing Bergeron's unit to play defense. That dynamic changed in the second and third. Bergeron's unit had more offensive zone possession time, which led to some dangerous offensive zone looks. As a team, the Bruins also enjoyed more possession time than they had in the first. As a result, the final 40 minutes of regulation were closely-contested. The Lightning had a huge response on the shift after Marchand scored a second period power play goal at 14:33. Point was hard on the puck in the offensive zone and managed to squeeze free past three Boston defenders. He slipped a cross-ice pass to Kevin Shattenkirk, who fired a right circle shot to the net. Nikita Kucherov deflected the shot past Halak to tie the game. It came just 55 seconds after Marchand's tally.
In the third period, that script was flipped. Coleman scored on a breakaway at 10:40 to give the Lightning their first lead of the game. But this time, the Bruins were the ones to rally. Marchand and Pastrnak came on the ice, joining center Sean Kuraly, who stayed on as the Bruins worked the puck into the offensive zone. After a scramble play in front of the Lightning net, Tyler Johnson momentarily got his stick on the puck with a chance to clear it. But he lost possession to Pastrnak, who worked a tic-tac-toe play with Kuraly and Marchand. Standing at the back post, Marchand put the puck in at 16:02 to tie the game.
As they did throughout the night, however, the Lightning pushed back. In the four minutes and forty seconds of overtime, they outshot the Bruins, 9-1. Shot attempts in OT were 13-2 in favor of the Lightning. And they won it when Palat jumped on a loose puck at the side of the net and popped it in.
This was an impressive win for the Lightning - and not just because of the in-game adversity they overcame. Playing without an injured Ryan McDonagh, they went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Coburn and Luke Schenn both skated in their first official games (not including the exhibition against Florida in late July) since March. Neither showed any rust, which is a credit to how they kept themselves ready during these past several weeks.
It's a quick turnover for both teams. Game Three is Wednesday night - the first of two potential back-to-back sets of games in this series.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game (as selected by Phil Esposito):
1. Blake Coleman - Lightning. Two goals. 2. Brad Marchand - Bruins. Two goals. 3. Ondrej Palat - Lightning. GWG in OT.