By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter/X @RyanJBosworth
The Bruins were back in action for their penultimate home game of the 2025-26 season as they hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning for the fourth and final time this year. There was a lot on the line in this one — as with a win, Boston would punch their ticket to the postseason.
Coming into today’s game, Tampa Bay sat in third place in the Atlantic, behind Montreal and Buffalo, with a record of 48-25-6. The Bruins, just one spot behind them in the standings, held sole possession of fourth place and trailed the Lightning by six points.
Tampa Bay had already taken the first three meetings between the Atlantic Division foes, looking for the clean sweep on the season series. The two faced each other just last weekend, which saw Tampa Bay take it 3-1.
Needless to say, this game was a must-win for Boston, and they let it slip away, losing 2-1, and allowing Tampa to sweep the season series. Let’s recap:
Strong Start
The Bruins opened the game with dominance, despite a lack of scoring chances. They dominated play and kept it within Tampa’s zone for most of the period. While the Lightning showed signs of life towards the end of the frame, the Bruins carried the play, though neither side was able to break the ice.
The Bruins’ dominant play carried over into the second period, and the scoring was opened by none other than Morgan Geekie, who notched his 38th goal of the season.
Geekie’s tally would be the lone-goal of the period, as Jeremy Swayman stood tall, stopping 13-of-13 shots faced through 40 minutes of play. Boston was now just 20 minutes away from clinching a playoff berth, but the pressure appeared to weigh heavy on their shoulders.
Letting It Slip Away
The Bruins came out for the third period gripping their sticks a little tighter. A common trend through this game was their inability to set up in the offensive zone off the rush. Tampa’s style of defense was extremely suffocating, and they made the Bruins’ lives harder than it already was, and it started wearing the Bruins down.
Continuing the trend of making the Bruins’ lives tough, they were also able to expose their weaknesses, as shown when they tied things up. Brandon Hagel was able to sneak behind both McAvoy and Jonathan Aspirot, who was fed a pass from Gage Concalves.
Hagel went in on Swayman all alone and was able to sneak it through his five-hole. Swayman, when asked about the goal, said, “I thought I was pretty square, but it just seemed to trickle in through that hip and blocker angle.”
Geekie’s goal would prove to be Boston’s only goal of the game, though Tampa Bay wasn’t done scoring. They’d pot one more, a rebound goal from Emil Lilleberg, with less than two minutes remaining in the period. The Bruins were caught in their own zone, and Tampa was able to capitalize at the right time.
Boston would get their only power play of the day at 19:23 of the third period, when Brandon Hagel went off for tripping. With Jeremy Swayman on the bench, Boston was playing with a two-man advantage, but were still unable to break past Andrei Vasilevsky with their 37 seconds of power play time.
Post-Game Reflection
“I thought we played a good game,” Morgan Geekie said of today’s game. “(The Lightning) are a good team, and we kind of stuck to our script for most of the game. Knew they were going to make a push in the third, but, I thought we weathered it pretty well. Obviously, they capitalized on their opportunities, but, yeah, it was tough to see that one slip away.”
“Tough loss. Feels like three times, this year, it happens against this team. We get the lead, and they’re just too skilled, and they’re too good for us not to keep pushing. Tough loss, but we have another big one tomorrow, and we have to get on the road and do the job there,” David Pastrnak said, when asked about today’s loss.
“If you just look at the two goals against, that hurts,” Marco Sturm commented. “We gotta move on here. Unfortunately, it cost us the game.” He went on to add that, “It would be tough if we had another three days off. We gotta look at the positives, and the positives for me is we still have two games left. It’s still in our control, and we are going to get back at it tomorrow.”
Other Highlights
- Morgan Geekie, scoring the lone-Bruins goal, now has four goals in his last two games after not scoring a goal for 17 games straight.
- Charlie McAvoy, with his assist on Geekie’s 38th goal, notched his 50th assist of the season. This is the first time McAvoy has hit the 50-assist mark in his career.
- Jeremy Swayman faced 24 shots and made 22 saves, recording a save percentage of .917.
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