Three goals just 1:25 apart shocked the rowdy crowd at TD Garden and staked the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-1 lead after one period against the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.
Tampa Bay got on the scoreboard first at 11:15 of the period. Victor Hedman’s shot from the right point and Dominic Moore’s rebound shot in front were both stopped by Tim Thomas. Dennis Seidenberg tried to kick the puck out of trouble, but it landed right on Sean Bergenheim’s stick, and his shot went in over Thomas’s shoulder for a 1-0 lead. It was Bergenheim’s eighth goal of these playoffs, tying him for the league lead.
Just 19 seconds later, the Lightning made it 2-0 when defenseman Brett Clark skated all the way up the ice and took a soft backhand shot that eluded Thomas and found the net. Then, over a minute after Clark’s goal, Teddy Purcell pressured Boston’s Tomas Kaberle on the forecheck and forced a turnover just to the left of Thomas. On his second shot, Purcell stuffed the puck past Thomas to increase Tampa Bay’s lead to 3-0.
The Bruins got one back at the 15:59 mark on a beautiful goal by rookie Tyler Seguin, playing in his first-ever Stanley Cup playoff game. Seguin took a feed from Michael Ryder and moved in one-on-one against Lundin. Seguin deked around the Lightning defenseman and beat Dwayne Roloson with a low wrist shot to cut the lead to 3-1.
Boston generated some good scoring chances leading up to and then following the Seguin goal. They were able to sustain offensive zone pressure, but the Lightning defense rallied to block shots and backcheck, keeping the pressure off of Roloson.