Lightning Vs. Bruins, Game 1: Three Goals In 1:25 Gives Tampa 3-1 Lead After One Period

So this is going to be the boring conference final, is it? Well, I guess this is okay. Three goals in 85 seconds gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-0 lead mid-way through the first period of Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Final series with the Boston Bruins. The Bruins called a timeout, regrouped, and then got a highlight-reel goal from rookie Tyler Seguin, playing in his first Stanley Cup Playoff game. Boston has life, but Tampa Bay leads 3-1 after 20 minutes at TD Garden.

It was an exciting start for both teams, as both teams were able to draw great chances. Vincent Lecavalier had the best early chance, getting in alone on Boston goaltender Tim Thomas. Lecavalier tried the backhand move that Peter Forsberg used against Canada in the 1992 Gold Medal Game of the Olympics, but Thomas made a remarkable save to keep it scoreless. It wouldn’t be for long.

A few minutes later, a bizarre play happened that caused Bruin defenseman Dennis Seidenberg to lose his stick completely. That would hurt him, as he was the only man able to play a rebound of a Tim Thomas save off a Dominic Moore shot. The best he could do was weakly kick the puck, where it was found by Sean Bergenheim, and he buried it past Thomas. Bergenheim continued his remarkable post-season, getting his eighth goal of the playoffs at 11:15.

Right off the face-off, defenseman Brett Clark got the puck in his own zone. The Lightning defender took it through the neutral zone, into the Bruins end, down the right wing. He was loosely watched by Andrew Ference of Boston, loosely enough that he got a nasty back-hander away that beat Thomas in a Raymond Bourque-esque rush in #77’s old haunt. It was Clark’s first goal of the post-season, and the second Tampa Bay goal in 19 seconds to make it 2-0 Lightning.

A minute later, there was another blunder from the Boston defense. Tomas Kaberle made a terrible play behind his own net. He simply mis-played, panicked and then gave it up to a standing-in-front Teddy Purcell. The young Tampa forward got not one, but two clean chances on Thomas and was able to bury it and make it 3-0 Lightning. It was Purcell’s second of the post-season, and the third Lightning goal in 1:25 at 12:40 to make it a three-goal lead. Claude Julien took his lone timeout to slow things down.

The Bruins got the momentum back slowly, and then got a goal back, courtesy of their #2-overall pick in the 2010 Entry Draft, Tyler Seguin. Seguin made a remarkable cross-over move on Tampa’s Mike Lundin, and beat Dwayne Rolson at 15:59. It was Seguin’s first career Stanley Cup Playoff goal in his first career post-season game, and it was 3-1 Lightning, which is how the first period would end.