Bruins Vs. Lightning, Game 4: Tampa Bay Gets Three Quick Goals To Tie It, 3-3 After Two Periods

Well that was different. After the Boston Bruins scored three goals, chased Dwayne Roloson and seemingly left the Tampa Bay Lightning for dead, the Lightning get three goals in less than four minutes in the middle of the second period to tie Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final at 3-3 after 40 minutes at St. Pete Times Forum. Boston leads the series, two games to one.

A poor play by Tim Thomas gave the Lightning life. He had trouble getting the puck cleared behind his own net. Eventually, Simon Gagne got the puck, and made a great pass to Teddy Purcell. Purcell made it a terrific forehand-to-backhand move, and back-handed it past Thomas, who still hadn’t settled down in his crease, to make it 3-1. It was Purcell’s third goal of the post-season at 6:55, but he wasn’t nearly done.

Just a little over a minute later, Mattias Ohlund found Purcell across the ice. It wasn’t the greatest angle on earth, but did Purcell ever make a beautiful snipe of a shot, toeing it up and just ripping it to the top right corner to beat Thomas. Purcell’s second of the game and fourth of the playoffs came at 7:58. Two goals from a somewhat unlikely source came in a span of 1:03 made it 3-2 Boston.

Tampa Bay was still not done. Just after getting a momentum-carrying power play that couldn’t cash in, the Bruins got a rush, but couldn’t sustain anything, and back came Tampa. Sean Bergenheim got a pass from Dominic Moore and just ripped a shot five-hole on Thomas to tie the game. After three goals in 6:11 of elapsed time in the first period gave Boston a 3-0 lead, Bergenheim’s ninth of the post-season gave the Lightning three goals in 3:58 to make it 3-3.