The Boston Bruins’ 6-2 victory in Game 1 of the Conference semi-final (LIVE on DAZN) at Tampa Bay Lightning was a curious scene. Bruins-Goalie Tuukka Rask lost a runner and scored a goal, but still shone.
At 3-1 for Boston, Tampa Bay played outnumbered as Rask helplessly tried to keep himself on his feet and somehow keep his chest clean with just one runner. The Finn did not succeed, Mikhail Sergachev took advantage of the situation ice-cold and shortened it to 2:3.
Rask took the fallen skid in his hand, showed it to the referees in protest and angrily threw the skate part onto the ice. It didn’t help, the goal counted – and the 31-year-old struggled his way to the bank.
“I didn’t throw the thing at anyone,” Rask made it clear: “If I had done that, I would apologize. But I just didn’t do it. I just wanted to make sure everyone saw the skid was off.”
Rask was not deterred by the incident and showed a very strong performance with 34 saves. David Pastrnak (4 assists), Brad Marchand (1 goal, 3 assists), Patrice Bergeron (1 goal, 2 assists) and Rick Nash also scored two goals on the Bruins’ side.
In the second game of the night, the Vegas Golden Knights were beaten 3-4 by the San Jose Sharks after two overtime games and thus took the 1-1 in the best-of-seven series. The winning goal was scored by Logan Couture in power play.
Vegas Golden Knights 1-1 San Jose Sharks
Nashville Predators 0-1 Winnipeg Jets
Washington Capitals 0-1 Pittsburgh Penguins
Tampa Bay Lightning 0-1 Boston Bruins