Wednesday, August 5, 2020 04:00 PM (ET)

Johnson's late goal pushes Lightning past Bruins

Field Level Media
Aug 5, 2020

Tyler Johnson's tiebreaking rebound goal with 87 seconds remaining in regulation kept the Tampa Bay Lightning's round-robin record perfect in a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday in Toronto.

Johnson, who also had an assist, punched in a rebound off Yanni Gourde's shot from the left circle to lift the Lightning (2-0-0, four points) to the top of the standings in the week-long tourney, which will set the top four seeds in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Alex Killorn notched a goal and an assist, and Brayden Point also scored. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 25 shots.

Boston's Charlie McAvoy and Chris Wagner tallied goals, and Tuukka Rask made his first start of the postseason and allowed three markers on 35 shots.

The Finnish backstop missed Sunday's 4-1 defeat against the Philadelphia Flyers due to a cough and was tested for COVID-19, and his results came up negative.

This season's Presidents' Trophy winner, the Bruins (0-2-0, no points) were eight points better than their Atlantic Division rival before the regular season paused but lost for the fourth time in five games against Tampa Bay.

The Philadelphia Flyers (two points) and Washington Capitals (one point) will play Thursday afternoon to complete the second round of games.

Lightning captain Steven Stamkos (lower body) skated Tuesday but again did not play. However, Boston's Patrice Bergeron, who missed Monday's practice, played and centered the top line between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.

The Lightning opened the scoring off a three-on-two rush in the first period. Kucherov tried to jam home a shot in tight on Rask, and Point slid in and backhanded home his first goal of round-robin play at 7:33 for the early lead.

On Tampa Bay's second power play, Killorn redirected in a deflected shot by Victor Hedman from the point. Boston's Sean Kuraly got a piece of Hedman's shot, but Killorn angled his skate to send the puck in for a 2-0 edge at 10:32.

Off a faceoff win by Bergeron, McAvoy unloaded a long blast from between the Stanley Cup logo and blue line to put the Bruins on the board at 16:43 of the second.

Boston tied it 2-2 at 1:47 of the third when Zdeno Chara's shot was stopped by Vasilevskiy and then hit the post squarely, leaving Wagner with an easy tap in for his second postseason goal.

--Field Level Media

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