If last night’s Boston Bruins at Tampa Bay Lightning game could be summed in two things it would be: Bergeron and goaltending.
Compared to Game 2, Game 3 was much more edge of your seat thrill ride with both teams focusing more on strategy.
Patrice Bergeron‘s return to the game seemed to revive the Bruins’ confidence. Bergeron had missed two weeks due to a concussion he had received in a shoulder-to-head check from Claude Giroux during Round 2 against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Tim Thomas was again goalie extraordinaire as he shut out the Lightning – his second playoff career shutout. Despite even the hair-raising moments, Thomas shut out the 31 attempts on net.
Not to mention the fact that the Bruins dominated this game, with David Krejci putting one in the net just over a minute into the game. From there the Bruins controlled play at puck drop 67% of the time. Bergeron himself won 18 of 28 faceoffs.
That’s not to say the Lightning didn’t make a great effort; the Bruins simply amped up their game and didn’t make mistakes. The Lightning are surely going to come back fighting harder for Game 4.
This win puts the Bruins ahead 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Final. Next game takes place at 1:30 pm EST in Tampa.