Tampa Bay Come Back from Deficit to Win Game 4

Tampa Bay Lightning celebrate after scoring overtime goal and taking 3-1 lead in series

The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning met last night for Game 4 in the series, one that was filled with controversy. Marchand was once again acting inappropriate licking faces and officiating was called into question yet again as calls were missed that had ramifications for the Bruins.

Tampa got the scoring started at 4:36 seconds into the first period when Brayden Point made a dash to the goal skating circles around the Bruins defense to slip one past Tuukka Rusk and give Tampa a 1-0 lead. The Lightning made it 2-0 while on a power play half way through the first when Nikita Kucherov sent a blistering shot on net and post the pads of Rusk.

Ryan McDonough earned Boston their first goal of the night at the 16 minute, 28 second mark after a bouncing rebound was slammed home. Only 2 and half minutes later, Boston tied it up on a power play when Bergeron was in front of the net and accepted a pass from behind the net.

After a scoreless second period, Boston went out in front to make it 3-2 at the 6:36 of the third period when Marchand and Bergeron went in alone catching Tampa’s defence by surprise. Marchand fired off a pass to Bergeron who sent it pass the glove of Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Sportsnet

The Lightning came back to tie the game at 13:56 of the third period after catching the Bruins off-guard when Charlie McAvoy was left unattended in front of the net and sent a hard shot through the legs of Tuukka Rusk. With the game tied up, it came down to overtime in what saw Tampa Bay score the tie breaking goal less than 4 minutes into the overtime period to win 4-3.

Boston was not pleased with officiating in last night’s game and have made that known. After losing Game 3 to Tampa, it seems Marchand’s frustrations once again saw his face licking antics coming into question. The NHL has taken a stand speaking with Marchand over his actions warning he will face penalties if another licking incident takes place.

Marchand felt that Stamkos goal should not have counted stating,

“It was a very blatant grab on McAvoy’s)shoulder. It turned into a goal. The missed calls that are costing goals and games, it’s unfortunate that they can’t get it right, so hopefully they can fix that.”

Boston’s head coach, Bruce Cassidy agreed stating,

“It looked like he reached around and pulled him down. Charlie (McAvoy) is a strong guy, but it wasn’t called, and it’s in our net, and that’s that.”

Cassidy was also not pleased with a hooking penalty that send Noel Acciari to the box. Commenting on the incident, Cassidy said,

“It’s game after game. I mean, to me, the calls – look at the Acciari penalty, it’s unbelievable. The league gives you a directive at the start of the year that if you’re going to after the stick, you gotta go under the stick and not on the hands, over the top of the hands. Acciari goes under the stick a foot from his hands, and you’ve got a 6-foot-5 guy that I think really sold it.

Boston now trails the Lightning 3-1 and faces playoff elimination in Game 5 on Sunday. If they succeed in winning, Game 5 will move back to Boston and if a Game 7 is needed, the series will return to Tampa.

Author Noah is our American writer who likes to give his own spin on everything Golf & the NHL he covers mainly the US side of the game as Doug covers the Canada. In his time off he can usually be taking to the greens or on the ice playing some hockey