Ondrej Palat scored two goals to lead Tampa Bay to a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon in Toronto, putting the Lightning on the cusp of reaching the next round in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Nikita Kucherov collected a pair of assists in Game 4 and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for the Lightning, who lead 3-1 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal and will look to close out the series Monday.
The Bruins, outscored 10-2 in the last two games, were guilty of surrendering a couple of prime scoring chances early and paid the price when Palat opened the scoring — the third straight game in which the Lightning forward has scored.
Thanks to a Bruins turnover, bad coverage and Brayden Point’s nifty stick handling before threading a pass to the slot, Palat had a golden chance and buried it at 8:59 of the clash.
Palat netted his second of the game shortly after Vasilevskiy made a key stop on Brandon Carlo. Kucherov chipped the puck to Anthony Cirelli at the blue-line and he set the table for Palat to rocket a one-timer from beyond the circles at the 12:29 mark of the second period.
WATCH | Ondrej Palat puts Bruins on brink of elimination:
Then, with Boston’s Nick Ritchie given a major penalty for boarding Yanni Gourde, Victor Hedman scored on the ensuing power play to extend the lead to 3-0 with 1:56 left in the second period. Hedman’s shot deflected off the skate of Boston’s Par Lindholm and went up and over goaltender Jaroslav Halak to find the twine.
WATCH | Lightning’s Yanni Gourde exits game after late hit by Ritchie:
The Bruins, the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners for the best regular season record, got on the board thanks to Jake DeBrusk’s power-play goal at 7:04 of the third period, a perfect shot from below the right face-off dot with a screen set, but that was as close as they could get.
Halak, put into the breach after No. 1 goalie Tuukka Rask left the team early in the first round, took the loss, but his 23-save outing kept the Bruins in the hunt, especially when his team surrendered a flurry of chances in the first 30 minutes.
Original article: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/ondrej-palat-lightning-bruins-playoff-recap-1.5705125?cmp=rss