GOLD STAR: Ryan Callahan finished with two goals, three points and six shots on net along with a plus-1 rating in 18:12 of ice time, and was part of a dominant line with Alex Killorn and Steven Stamkos that the Bruins simply had no answer for. Callahan scored one goal finishing off a 2-on-none break after Adam McQuaid fell down at the blue line, and then scored a backbreaking power play goal in the second period when he deflected a Stamkos shot past Tuukka Rask. He blocked a couple of shots and played an involved game, but didn’t even really need to get into the nitty, gritty stuff against a Bruins team making mistakes all over the ice.
BLACK EYE: Tough to fully blame him given that it was a freak play, but Adam McQuaid didn’t last long in a top pairing with Zdeno Chara after falling down and leading into a two-on-none break for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Shortly afterward he was replaced by Kevan Miller as the top pairing D-man, and finished the night a minus-1 in 15:30 of ice time in a night he’ll want to forget quickly. Zdeno Chara was also a problem again on Sunday night as he was on ice for three of the four goals against, and has been on ice for a concerning amount of the goals scored against the Bruins lately.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins went on the penalty kill with their best PK guy (Patrice Bergeron) in the box, and it took all of seven seconds for Tampa Bay to score with a Steven Stamkos shot redirected by Ryan Callahan past Tuukka Rask. That was when the Bruins went down 3-1 in the game, and truly looked like they were punched in the gut. That was it for the team, and then two minutes later Stamkos scored on the penalty shot after Brad Marchand disrupted the Tampa Bay star forward’s partial breakaway to the net.
HONORABLE MENTION: Steven Stamkos continues to get red-hot down the stretch for the Lightning, and finished with a goal, two points and a plus-2 in 16:46 of ice time while dominating with his forward line all night. Stamkos has four shot attempts, three takeaways and won 12-of-20 face-offs for the Lightning in a dominant performance, and forced Claude Julien into all kinds of switches with his D-men pairings because nobody could handle the center with Alex Killorn and Ryan Callahan. That was a preview of what will happen if the Bruins run into the Lightning in a playoff series.
BY THE NUMBERS: 9 – the number of points that Stamkos has over the last six games with seven goals and two assists in a red-hot stretch.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It was a big game and we needed to be better than we were. They pushed us out of the game and the goalie wouldn’t let us back in.” – Claude Julien, lamenting a loss to Tampa Bay that really got away from them.