B’s Sloppy Play Results In Game 1 Loss

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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

In golf, some people take what’s called a “breakfast ball” (a mulligan, if you will) on the first tee if they don’t hit a great tee ball on their first shot of the day. After that, they play it as it lies for the rest of the round.

Too bad the Boston Bruins couldn’t take a breakfast puck for a minute and a half stretch of poor play in the first period. From the 11:15 mark to 12:40 into the first, Boston gave up 3 goals to the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was all that Tampa would need to grab game one of the Eastern Conference Finals at the TD Garden 5-2.

Sean Bergenheim (8th goal of the playoffs), Brett Clark (1st) and Teddy Purcell (2nd) scored the Tampa goals during that stretch. Two of the three tallies were unassisted.

Rookie Tyler Seguin scored the lone Boston goal with 4 minutes to play in the first. It was Seguin’s first-ever playoff goal in his first-ever playoff game. He was added to the roster as a replacement for the injured Patrice Bergeron.

Boston’s anemic power play actually moved the puck well and created some solid scoring chances. Still, the B’s had nothing to show for it going 0-4 on the power play in game 1.

Tampa went 1-5 on the power play. Marc-Andre Bergeron’s second of the playoffs with less than 7 minutes to play in the third eliminated any chance Boston had of a late rally. Simon Gangne’s empty-netter (3rd) finished the Tampa scoring late in the third.

Johnny Boychuck (3rd) closed out the Boston scoring with 1:01 to play in the third.

Tim Thomas stopped 29 of the 33 shots he faced from Tampa Bay. Dewayne Roloson made 31 saves for the visitors.

With the loss, Boston now surrenders home ice advantage to the Lightning.

Game 2 of the series will be played Tuesday night in Boston at 8pm.