On Sunday, June 11, the Boston Bruins defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 at the TD Garden in what turned out to be a historic triple-overtime match that lasted 119 minutes and 26 seconds.
Deafening roar erupted as the crucial Game 6 clash began at 8:05 pm ET, with Beantown’s beloved Bruins hoping to avoid elimination and force a decisive 7th game in the Eastern Conference Finals. What was happening was a contest for all ages between two of hockey’s biggest names.
Boston came out swinging in the first period, giving Lightning goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy a ton of excellent scoring opportunities. But the frontrunner for the Vezina Trophy was up to the challenge, making a string of desperate stops to hold the game 0-0 for the first twenty minutes.
At the 5:28 mark of the second, Steven Stamkos’ one-timer from the left circle on the power play eventually snapped the tie between Tampa and Minnesota. The exquisite passing of the Lightning had shredded the Bruins’ penalty-killing team.
But Boston appeared to come alive after the goal, answering in only 38 seconds with a deflection seeing-eye goal from the point by Jake DeBrusk. Just enough of the puck’s trajectory was altered by Patrice Bergeron’s skillful tip to trick Vasilevskiy.
All of regulation time was spent in an extremely tense, defense-first chess battle. Both sides tensed up at their respective creases, committing players to block shots and keeping the other team from having any prolonged offensive zone time.
Every puck battle in all three zones, which has long been the trademark of playoff hockey, took on immense significance as each heavyweight fighter attempted to deliver the finishing blow. The excitement was only increased by a plethora of excruciating near-misses involving players like as David Pastrnak, Nikita Kucherov, and Brayden Point.
Both teams had given it their all on the legendary TD Garden rink, and when the third period buzzer mercifully sounded with the score tied at one, they could hardly stand. They had no idea that their titanic struggle had only just begun.
There was more end-to-end action in the first overtime session as Ullmark made consecutive crucial stops on Alex Killorn and Steven Stamkos to keep Boston in the game. On the other hand, trade deadline addition Tyler Bertuzzi found himself clean in the slot and roofed his opportunity over Vasilevskiy’s glove as the Bruins eventually took advantage of a defensive zone mistake.
Cue the thunderous chaos from the boisterous Boston supporters as the team came within twenty minutes of requiring a seventh game. However, in line with a match that would exemplify the phrase “roller-coaster ride,” Tampa responded nearly instantly with a seeing-eye wrister from Mikhail Sergachev at 3:11.
During the second overtime session at TD Garden, the tension was unbearable, with fans appearing to be constrained to the edge of their seats. After more than a hundred minutes of fighting, fatigue set in, and the smallest mistake in positioning may have a dramatic effect on the result.
In a goalie display for the ages, Ullmark and Vasilevskiy combined to make 94 stops, almost supernaturally determined to deny a string of glorious opportunities.
In the end, after more than two whole games of gladiatorial battle, one last valiant moment was critical in ending the impasse and giving Boston a chance to redeem themselves.
After the Bruins’ relentless forecheck eventually began to wear down Tampa’s defense, Pastrnak had enough time and space inside the right circle to find his place and fire his trademark one-timer upstairs, sending the Garden into disbelief.
Players from both teams just dropped where they were or flung off their equipment in simultaneous waves of happiness and destruction as the black-and-gold believers unleashed an ear-splitting flood of delight.
After an eight-hour struggle, head coaches Jim Montgomery and Jon Cooper—two fighters in their own right—only nodded their heads in confused acceptance of the instant classic they had just fought.
“I’ve never been as proud of our leadership group and whole roster after a performance like that,” Montgomery said. “To hang in there for that long against one of the NHL’s premier teams and keep pushing for that third goal – that’s the kind of character and will you need to be successful in the playoffs.”
The fact that the Lightning trailed the series 3-1 made the double-whammy of losing such a long game and having to play a winner-take-all Game 7 all the more devastating for the vanquished team.
“It’s a cruel way to end that one after the heart both teams showed,” Cooper said. “It will hurt for a while now, but in the long run, I think this will rank among the best games in recent memory. Boston won’t be playing kind on Wednesday, so we’ll need to regain our energy fast.”
Indeed, the culmination of an incredible playoff series between two very competing teams will be Wednesday night’s Game 7 in Tampa. Some may bemoaning the lack of consecutive complete rest for such an event, but both fighters will be thrilled at the opportunity to pen yet another chapter in what has already proven to be an unprecedentedly dramatic tale.
A generational demonstration of hockey’s ability to produce high-stakes drama and exceptional performances under duress has already been shown to the thousands of fans in attendance and the millions watching on television around the globe.
The triple-overtime classic in Game 6 perfectly captured everything that makes playoff hockey so unique: Superhuman willpower, unparalleled emotional fluctuations, and breathtaking skill that leave you hanging on the tip of your seat, wanting more. All of it fought at the greatest level possible between two incredibly skilled and proud teams that embodied the essence of their respective communities.
Hockey enthusiasts, buckle up and drink up. Because when these fierce rivals play winner-take-all in two nights, we’re undoubtedly in for another epic after seeing an all-time classic like Sunday’s amazing matchup in Boston.
