Bruins kick away game, suffer narrow defeat to Lightning

BOSTON — The equation was easy for the Boston Bruins. Beat the Tampa Bay Lightning and they would clinch a playoff spot.

No dice.

The B’s coughed up a third-period lead and then gave up a late goal to come away with nothing in a 2-1 loss to the Bolts at TD Garden Saturday for their fifth straight loss (0-3-2).

That completed the season sweep of the B’s by the Lightning, who won all four games by one goal, including the last three when the Bruins took a lead into the third period.

Quite simply, the Bolts are what the Bruins hope to become someday. The B’s took the lead in the second period but, with their sticks tightening in the magnitude of the moment, they made more game-losing mistakes.

“We had them and when you get scored against, it felt a little bit different, a little more pressure, I would say,” coach Marco Sturm said. “I thought we were managing it OK. But it’s a good team over there. Exactly what happened tonight happened in the past against them. Those little moments. If you just look at those two goals against, that hurts. We’ve got to move on. Unfortunately, it cost us the game. But it’s still in our control so that’s good.”

The B’s still could have clinched on Saturday evening. With Ottawa’s regulation win over the Islanders, the B’s needed the out-of-the-running Devils to beat Detroit in regulation in a 5 p.m. start. The Senators, however, moved into the driver’s seat for the first wild card with the win on Long Island. Both the Sens and the Bruins have 96 points but Ottawa holds the first tie-breaker in regulation wins.

If they don’t get any help, the B’s need two points out of their last two games against Columbus and New Jersey.

Whatever happened elsewhere would not change the fact that the B’s are not closing out this season like they want to.

“We are in a good spot that we put ourselves in the whole year. But at the same time, we lost five in a row. We have to get our game back. Time is ticking. Good news is we are back at it (Sunday),” David Pastrnak said.

With the game winding down, Casey Mittelstadt was stripped of the puck by Brayden Point along the boards, a spot where Mittelstadt has been so good this year. Point came out into the middle of the ice and, fighting off Mittelstadt’s check, fired a shot that was tipped. That produced a rebound for Emil Lilleberg to tuck it past Jeremy Swayman (22 saves) for the 2-1 lead with 1:35 left in the third.

With Swayman pulled for the extra skater, Brandon Hagel took an interference penalty with 33.6 seconds left in regulation. Boston had a great chance to tie it when Morgan Geekie, the lone Bruins goal scorer, had a one-timer with a lot of net at which to shoot but it hit Viktor Arvidsson and they couldn’t pull even.

The first period was not what you’d call high event. There were very few whistles in the whole 20 minutes.

The Bolts had the best scoring chance when Yanni Gourde found Gage Goncalves all alone in the slot. Goncalves circled in front of Swayman and got the goalie down, but he ran out of ice and Swayman, on his belly, clamped down on Goncalves bank attempt.

The B’s first good chance came early in the second period. The fourth line won a couple of battles down low and the puck went out to a wide-open Andrew Peeke up at the right point. He took a few steps down and fired a shot that produced a big rebound off Andrei Vasilevskiy (19 saves). It went to Mark Kastelic on the left side but he could not get it past a sprawling Vasilevskiy.

The B’s were starting to look a little tense. Arvidsson committed a terrible turnover in the defensive zone on which Swayman bailed him out.

But just when it looked like Tampa was going take over the game, the B’s struck. With Tampa pressuring in the Boston end, a loose puck came around to Charlie McAvoy. The defenseman made a nice move to protect it from a swooping Anthony Cirelli and then sprung Geekie for a clean breakaway. Geekie, who had just blown up his 17-game goal-less streak with a hat trick in Carolina on Tuesday, beat Vasilevskiy clean over the glove for his 38th at the 10:47 mark of the second period.

The game was penalty-free until there was 59 seconds left in the second, and Tampa bailed out the B’s. Jonathan Aspirot, who was playing Nikita Kucherov tight, was called for tripping the Tampa superstar. But before Aspirot could take his seat in the penalty box, Charle-Edouard D’Astous came in and horse-collared Aspirot to the ice, drawing a roughing penalty and wiping out the Tampa power play.

The B’s came out for the third period jittery, coughing up the puck several times though Swayman was there to maintain the slim lead. Tampa got their first power play when Elias Lindholm was called for holding. They did a good job of killing it off. Fraser Minten also had a good shorthanded bid he could not convert.

But at 6:37, a mental mistake led to the Tampa equalizer. With the B’s pressing, Aspirot was caught bunched over with McAvoy on the right side, allowing Goncalves to spring Hagel for a breakaway. Hagel’s shot broke through Swayman and just trickled through his pads to even it up.

With the Bolts’ hopes of home-ice in the first round motivation for the visitors and the B’s wanting to nail down their playoff spot, the game was tense down the stretch.

The B’s, who did not have a power play, should have got one with 2:44 left when D’Astous caught Sean Kuraly with a high stick but it was not called. That could have helped the B’s at least get to OT and secure one of their two required points. They didn’t get it, and then Tampa did what they habitually do to the Bruins — they made a play when it matters.

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