Tampa Bay Lightning Complete Historic Comeback Against Boston Bruins In Stadium Series
It was the kind of night that reminded everyone why we drag the game of hockey outdoors in the first place. You had the 41-degree chill at puck drop, a pirate ship in the end zone, and 64,617 fans screaming their lungs out at Raymond James Stadium. And then, you had the game itself that saw the Tampa Bay Lightning claw their way back from a four-goal deficit to stun the Boston Bruins 6-5 in a shootout.
For the Bruins, this one is going to sting. We’re talking about a team that was 26-0-2 when leading after two periods this season. They had the Lightning in a stranglehold. They had the 5-1 lead. They had the momentum. But as any sports fan knows, momentum is a fickle beast, especially when goalies start throwing hands.
A Fast Start and a Pirate Ship
The night started fast—almost too fast for the folks still finding their seats. Just 11 seconds into the contest, Tampa’s Brandon Hagel ripped a shot past Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman. The cannon fired, the crowd erupted, and it looked like the Bolts were ready to run Boston out of the building.
But hockey, as they say, is a game of bounces. And for the next 25 minutes, every bounce went Boston’s way. The Bruins responded with a fury that silenced the home crowd. Alex Steeves, fresh off a healthy scratch streak, finally found the back of the net to tie it up.
Then came the “Geek Squad.” Morgan Geekie deflected a Charlie McAvoy shot to take the lead. Before the first intermission horn could sound, Viktor Arvidsson tipped another one home on the power play. Just like that, it was 3-1, and the Bruins were grinning.
The Collapse Begins
When Matt Poitras, playing in just his second NHL game of the season, roofed a backhander early in the second period, it felt like a rout. Then, Geekie potted his second of the night on a beautiful feed from David Pastrnak, making it 5-1. The Bruins were cruising. They were in complete control. Until they weren’t.
The unraveling didn’t start with a goal; it started with chaos. After Oliver Bjorkstrand cut the lead to 5-2, tensions boiled over. Hagel started digging for a loose puck under Swayman’s pads, and Swayman took exception. The next thing you know, Andrei Vasilevskiy is skating to center ice, Swayman meets him there, and we’ve got a goalie fight at the Stadium Series.
It was brief—Vasilevskiy got the better of the exchange—but it was electric. And crucially, it completely shifted the energy for the Lightning.
Special Teams Nightmare
If there’s a lesson to be learned from Sunday night, it’s this: stay out of the penalty box against the Lightning. Following the goalie scrap, the Bruins lost their discipline. They took three straight penalties, handing the Lightning a golden 5-on-3 opportunity. Tampa didn’t waste it. Darren Raddysh blasted one home from the blue line. Twenty-three seconds later, Nick Paul scored on the doorstep.
Suddenly, a 5-1 laugher was a 5-4 nail-biter heading into the third. The equalizer felt inevitable, and sure enough, with just over eight minutes left, Nikita Kucherov hammered a one-timer past Swayman to knot things up at 5-5. The four-goal lead was gone. The collapse was complete.
Heartbreak In Overtime and the Shootout
You have to feel for David Pastrnak. In overtime, he thought he had the game-winner on his stick. His slap shot beat Vasilevskiy clean, but the whistle had already blown for a slashing penalty on Pastrnak. No goal.
The Bruins managed to kill off the penalty, surviving a terrifying Kucherov breakaway thanks to a clutch save from Swayman. But fate wasn’t on their side in the shootout. After Jake Guentzel scored in the third round for the Lightning, it all came down to Pastrnak again. He moved in, looked to make his move, and rang his shot off the post. Game over.
It goes down as the largest comeback win in Lightning history, a stat that Boston will be hearing about for a long time. The Bruins head into the three-week Olympic break licking their wounds, left to wonder how a perfect outdoor night turned into a perfect storm.
