Boston goaltender Jaroslav Halak looks back at the puck after Tampa Bay’s Ondrej Palat scored the winning goal in overtime Tuesday in Toronto. Tampa Bay tied the series with the Bruins, 1-1. Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP
TORONTO — Ondrej Palat scored 4:40 into overtime Tuesday night to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-3 victory over the Bruins and tie the best-of-seven Eastern Conference second-round series at one game apiece.
Brad Marchand’s second goal and sixth of the postseason forced overtime with 3:58 left in regulation. Tampa Bay’s Blake Coleman had broken a 2-2 tie on his second goal of the night with 9:20 remaining to give Boston its first deficit of the series.
Game 3 is at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Bruins weren’t sharp from the start, but a couple of breaks helped them claim an early 1-0.
Nick Ritchie scored his first of the postseason after just 3:14. He and Anders Bjork had a two-on-one break after Lightning defenseman Zach Bogosian’s stick snapped as he handled the puck at the right point, and Bjork one-timed Ritchie’s pass wide of the net at the end of the rush.
The puck caromed to the opposite post, where Ritchie and center Charlie Coyle – aided, in the Lightning’s opinion, by a slow whistle – jammed at the loose puck until it crossed the line.
The Lightning appeared to tie it at 5:17, when Barclay Goodrow deflected Braydon Coburn’s shot past Jaroslav Halak (35 saves) from the slot.
The Bruins challenged the play, however, and the goal came off the board when video replay showed Lightning center Brayden Point was offside on the play.
The Lightning did take advantage of some poor Bruins defense to make it 1-1 at 7:18. Bogosian rushed the puck across the offensive blue line and weaved through Torey Krug, then Brandon Carlo, before getting a pass across the slot. Coleman, who had a step on Bjork, dove to reach the pass and directed it past Halak.
The Bruins were outshot 11-9 in the first, despite the absence of Lightning shutdown defenseman Ryan McDonagh (undisclosed injury).
David Pastrnak set up the go-ahead goal in the second period. Palat had just entered the penalty box for high-sticking Connor Clifton when Pastrnak, standing in the left circle, threaded a pass to the far post for Marchand, whose tap-in put the Bruins ahead, 2-1, at 14:33.
The lead lasted less than a minute.
The Ritchie-Coyle-Bjork line couldn’t exit the defensive zone cleanly and finally surrendered possession to Point, who found defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk in the high slot. Nikita Kucherov, standing in the right circle deflected Shattenkirk’s shot past Halak at 15:28.
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