Boston’s Undefeated Streak Ends at Three as Cirelli's Pair Powers Lightning to First Win

 

Photo via Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning finally broke into the win column on Monday, defeating the previously undefeated Boston Bruins 4-3 at TD Garden. The thrilling victory not only snapped the Bruins’ season-opening winning streak but also gave the Lightning their first win of the season (1-2-0) in dramatic fashion. Anthony Cirelli led the charge with a pair of goals, helping Tampa Bay build a multi-goal lead that withstood a furious third-period comeback attempt by the Bruins.

Tampa Bay Lightning Lineup:

Hagel - Point - Kucherov

Guentzel - Cirelli - Goncalves

Holmberg - Gourde - Bjorkstrand

Chaffee - Geekie - Douglas

Hedman - Moser

McDonagh - Cernak

Lilleberg - Crozier

Johansson

Vasilevskiy

Boston Bruins Lineup:

Geekie - Lindholm - Pastrnak

Zacha - Mittelstadt - Arvidsson

Jeannot - Minten - Eyssimont

Khusnutdinov - Kuraly - Kastelic

Lohrei - McAvoy

Harris - Peeke

Zadorov - Jokiharju

Korpisalo

Swayman

Tampa Bay struck first when Anthony Cirelli got the party started early in the first period at 18:51 when he redirected Jake Guentzel's centering pass past Joonas Korpisalo. Gage Goncalves collected the loose puck on the left side before passing it across to Guentzel, who fired, and Cirelli redirected it to put the Lightning ahead 1-0. Cirelli found the back of the net later in the opening frame with 6:46 on the clock, making it 2-0, when Guentzel set up the play with a backhand centering pass from behind the net, and Cirelli beat Korpisalo glove side.

Yanni Gourde extended the Lightning's lead to 3-0 just 39 seconds into the second on a tap-in off a turnover after taking a pass from Pontus Holmberg, who got a hold of the puck, drove up to the net, and spun around to send it to Gourde. Not long after, Casey Mittelstadt put home the first Boston goal at 18:51 when he fired a wrister from the slot after Pavel Zacha passed the puck to Viktor Arvidsson, who sent it over to Mittelstadt to beat Jonas Johansson short side. Holmberg gave the Lightning a 4-1 lead at 16:23 when he stuffed in a rebound after spending some time in the left corner, tangled up, before the puck went along the wall to the right side to Conor Geekie, who fired, the puck popping out to Oliver Bjorkstrand, who was in front of the net and shot, and the puck found its way to Holmberg to stuff it in. Jordan Harris collected his first as a Bruin on a 2-on-1 with Zacha, firing the puck past Johansson to cut the lead 4-2 at 14:30 of the middle frame. With 8:25 on the clock, Morgan Geekie scored on the power play to make it 4-3, which ended up being the final score as they had a scoreless third period.

Jordan Harris on scoring in front of the TD Garden crowd and the game, their pushback: "It's really cool. It's something that I've dreamed about, it's something I've seen thousands of times on TV, but special, especially to be able to do it here at home." - "I mean, the pushback is definitely a positive. I think we need to start better. I mean, since the beginning of the preseason, I think we've been really resilient. Like we had a lot of wins in preseason, coming back in the third period, and that's great, but it's also not great to be trailing and trying to claw back all the time. So, definitely some positives to take away, but we got to be better, and we know we can be better."

Notes:

- The Bruins have a three-day road trip coming up, starting in Vegas against the Golden Knights.

- Pavel Zacha collected a pair of assists. ...Since 2019-20, Zacha is one of the three Bruins players with at least four assists through his first four games of a season. Both David Pastrnak (five in 2022-23) and Connor Clifton (four in 2022-23) are the others.

- Joonas Korpisalo made a total of 19 saves for Boston.

- Jordan Harris, who scored his first goal as a Bruin, signed with Boston as a free agent on July 1.

- The Bruins went 0-for-5 on the power play with six shots on goal.

- Pontus Holmberg picked up both a goal and an assist. Both Jake Guentzel and Gage Goncalves each collected a pair of assists.

- Jonas Johansson made a total of 30 saves for Tampa Bay.

- For the first time since 2009-10 (0-1-2), the Lightning has avoided beginning a season with three straight losses.

- Making his season debut after serving a two-game suspension for boarding Jesper Boqvist during preseason (October 4th), J.J. Moser had an assist in a game-high 24:23 of ice time.