BOSTON — With a nasty nor’easter bearing down on the region, it’s hard to imagine anyone was interested in getting out of bed in New England on Monday. The Boston Bruins didn’t seem to be.
It looked as if the B’s were still nestled beneath their blankets when the puck dropped for their matinee at TD Garden with the Tampa Bay Lightning, leading to their first loss of the season by the final of 4-3.
“They came ready to play,” Bruins head coach Marco Sturm said. “They just wanted to get to work right away, and we just weren’t ready. That’s why we made mistakes, and that’s why it ended up four times, pretty much, on an empty net.”
Starting in goal, Joonas Korpisalo had little help from the defense in front of him, facing shots early and often as he stopped 19 of the 24 he faced.
It was only 1:07 into the first period that Boston fell behind after Charlie McAvoy coughed up the puck skating through the neutral zone, creating a scoring chance for Tampa that Anthony Cirelli easily converted.
Another Bruins turnover later in the frame turned into another Bolts’ goal when Nikita Zadorov attempted to break the puck out of the defensive end, but instead placed it perfectly on the stick of Lightning forward Jake Guentzel in the slot, who set up Cirelli for his second goal of the afternoon.
It really started to seem the Bruins weren’t simply sleeping, but in full-on hibernation when Yanni Gourde tacked on a third goal for Tampa to start the second period. But then, Boston finally showed a sign of life when Casey Mittelstadt responded with his second goal of the season 30 seconds later to make it 3-1.
Pontus Holmberg pushed Tampa’s advantage back to three with over 16 minutes to play in the middle frame, only for Boston to chop it down to one before the second intermission.
Filling in for the injured Hampus Lindholm for the second straight game, Haverhill, MA native Jordan Harris sniped a shot off the rush for his first goal as a member of the Bruins, bringing the score to 4-2.
“It’s something that I’ve dreamed about,” said Harris. “It’s something that I’ve seen a thousand times on TV. It was really special, especially to do it here, at home.”
Morgan Geekie then recorded his second goal of the year, lacing a puck into the back of the net that Lightning netminder Jonas Johansson never saw coming off a draw in the attacking zone.
That, of course, was as close as the Bruins could get.
“We knew they had lost a couple of games to start the year and that they were going to come out hot,” Geekie said. “You can’t really do that in day games. You got to figure out a way to get going, especially at home in a divisional game. I wouldn’t pinpoint it on one thing. I think we got to our game toward the end of the second and into the third. This league is too good to fall behind that early.”
Falling to 3-1-0, the Bruins begin a three-game road trip on Thursday in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights.
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