BOSTON– Although they were the ones playing with a patchwork lineup, the Boston Bruins punched hole after hole through the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 6-2 victory on Tuesday night at TD Garden.
With regulars such as Charlie McAvoy and Mark Kastelic out of the lineup due to injury, the Bruins called up multiple players from AHL Providence prior to the game as much-needed reinforcements, with Matthew Poitras the headliner among them.
The speedy forward wasted no time making an impact in his return to the Bruins lineup, as he helped open the scoring by setting up Trent Frederic at the backdoor off an odd-man rush for his seventh goal of the season at 4:24 of the first period.
“It definitely gives me some confidence,” Poitras said. “Now, I just need to try and do this every day, day in and day out, and string some consistency together.”
Parker Wotherspoon then put Boston ahead 2-0 midway through the period as he collected a slick pass from David Pastrnak at the left faceoff circle and fired it short side past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiyfor his career NHL goal.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for that moment,” said Wotherspoon. “My mom’s in the crowd tonight, too, so it makes the moment a little bit bigger. I know she’s going to be fired up.”
Pastrnak continued to spread the wealth in the second period as he assisted on his arch-enemy Brad Marchand’s 16th goal of the season, which made it 3-0 Bruins 1:13 into the frame.
Having already helped two of his teammates find the back of the net, Pastrnak selfishly decided to score a goal of his own. After defenseman Andrew Peeke weaved through the low slot by using a rare display of stick handling to get a shot on net, Pastrnak cleaned up the rebound and put Boston ahead by four with his 20th goal of the year and third point of the night.
The Lightning finally began to show signs of life when Connor Geekie put them on the board at 8:50 of the second and eventually cut the deficit to two after Victor Hedman scored with 17.2 seconds left until the intermission.
But that was all the offense Tampa Bay could muster against Jeremy Swayman, who was rock solid as he made 43 saves on 45 shots in goal for Boston.
“Having a strong start helped us a lot, especially in our building, setting the tone with how we want to play and maintaining that play throughout the whole 60 minutes,” Swayman said. “That’s a huge momentum builder for us, and I’m excited to continue that.”
Tampa Bay tried to close the gap late in the game by pulling Vasilevskiy, but all that did was leave a wide-open target for Peeke and Pavel Zacha to hit with a pair of shorthanded empty-net goals.
Boston’s laundry list of injuries received another addition late in the game when Cole Koepke was helped off the ice after getting hit across the face by Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh in the third period. No penalty was assessed to Raddysh after a video review. Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco did not have an update on Koepke’s status following the game.
The Bruins improved to 22-19-5 with their first win on home ice in 2025 and now once again lead the Lightning by two points in the standings. They’ll have the next three days off before traveling to face the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon.
