The Boston Bruins appear to be quite ready for the playoffs.
And the Tampa Bay Lightning are slumping at the wrong time of the season.
The top two teams in the Eastern Conference slugged it out Thursday night and Boston prevailed
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”This definitely had a playoff feel to it,” said Brand Marchand, whose empty-net goal with 56 seconds left sealed it for the Bruins, who took over first place in the conference with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.
”Obviously we all know how big it was for the standings and what it meant for both teams. So it was great to see the guys react the way they did and have the game we did.”
Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists, Tim Schaller and David Pastrnak scored goals 32 seconds apart in the final minute of the first period and Tuukka Rask made 26 saves for the Bruins, who have 107 points and lead Tampa Bay by a point.
Boston has six games remaining in the regular season to five for Tampa Bay.
For the first time since Oct. 18, a team other than the Lightning leads the Eastern Conference.
”I think it means that we’ve been playing pretty good hockey the last couple of months,” said Rask, who also helped set the emotional tone by unloading a flurry of punches on Tampa Bay’s Cory Conacher during a scrum in the second.
It was one of many times in the game that postseason implications were apparent, including a rare fight for Pastrnak in the third period and several more battles before the officials had to separate both sides one final time – after the third-period buzzer.
”There was a ton of passion,” Tampa Bay’s Alex Killorn said. ”There was a lot of hits and a lot of scrums after the whistle. It seems like it could potentially be a playoff matchup. It definitely had a playoff atmosphere tonight.”
J.T. Miller scored a power-play goal for Tampa Bay in the second and Victor Hedman added a goal in the third. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 26 saves for the Lightning, who have lost three straight and are 0-3 against the Bruins this season.
”Playing in here is always difficult,” Killorn said. ”The second and third period, I think we did a pretty good job. We created a lot more opportunities for ourselves.”
Killorn had an apparent goal waved off in the third when a teammate was in the crease with Boston leading 2-1. A few minutes later
Cheap Marquis Haynes Jersey , Torey Krug passed to Bergeron at the side of the net for a goal to put Boston up 3-1 at 11:59 of the third.
The Lightning cut it to 3-2 when Hedman beat Rask through his legs with 6:06 remaining in the third, but Marchand’s empty-netter sealed it and Boston took over the top spot in the division and conference.
”It was a big win for us. Finally we jumped them after a whole season chasing them,” Pastrnak said.
The Bruins outshot the Lightning 17-6 in the first period and took a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals in the final minute.
Schaller put Boston up 1-0 after stealing the puck from Ryan McDonagh just inside the blue line and started a 2-on-1 break with Tommy Wingels, who got off a shot as Schaller crashed the net and poked in the rebound.
Killorn took an interference penalty with 31 seconds remaining and Pastrnak scored 5 seconds into the penalty, putting the Bruins up 2-0 with 26 seconds left in the period.
The game paused for a few minutes with 8:44 left in the second after Rask took a few shots at Conacher when he was slow to get up after getting tangled with Brandon Carlo in the crease.
Rask landed several punches with his glove before players from both teams jumped in and were eventually separated.
Vasilevskiy skated toward the other end, but was cut off at the blue line by referee Francois St. Laurent, who kept the Tampa Bay goalie from entering the fray. Boston fans roared their approval by shouting ”Tuuuuuuuuk!” throughout the altercation.
Later in the second, it was Pastrnak stepping in after a hit on Bergeron and squaring off with Tampa Bay’s Dan Girardi. Pastrnak said it was his first fight and his inexperience showed when Girardi quickly took him down, but the Bruins appreciated his effort.
”I don’t think I’ve fought ever – like ever,” he said. ”I’m a pretty calm-down guy.”
NOTES: Krug finished with two assists. The Lightning and Bruins play one more time in the regular season, Tuesday night in Tampa Bay. … Boston improved to 7-1-0 in its past eight against Tampa Bay. … Boston D Zdeno Chara, who signed a one-year contract extension with the Bruins on Wednesday, missed his seventh straight game with an upper-body injury. … Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper entered the game with 239 wins, tied with John Tortorella for the most in franchise history. … The Bruins haven’t lost in regulation since Florida shut them out 3-0 on March 15.
UP NEXT
Lightning: At New York Rangers on Friday night.
Bruins: Host Florida on Saturday afternoon.
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More NHL hockey: Daniel Carlson's career-best field goal at Auburn was 56 yards. His confidence range indoors reaches 65. During pre-draft training in the high altitude of his home state Colorado
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The Minnesota Vikings were so enamored with that strong leg they used a fifth-round pick on the 6-foot-5, 213-pound Carlson, a bold enough move to suggest he'll be the place kicker this season and not incumbent Kai Forbath.
No matter how big of a boom Carlson delivers on the ball, though, what matters the most is how accurate he can be from those less-impressive and more-critical distances. The shorter kicks that the Vikings have seen missed too many times over the past five years.
"I'm a 6-foot-5 kicker, which is pretty rare. That does help having those long levers to hopefully get a couple touchbacks and some longer kicks here and there," Carlson said. "But at the end of the day it's the kicks inside of 50 that really are going to make or break a season or make or break you."
The Vikings re-signed Forbath in March. In 25 games since he replaced the struggling Blair Walsh, Forbath has missed eight extra points. He also pulled a couple of 39-yard field goals wide in 2017. Though he came through down the stretch with several important makes, including three field goals in the playoff game win over New Orleans, Forbath clearly didn't gain the full trust of the coaching staff and front office.
"The whole objective right now at this point is to create the most competitive 90-man roster that you can, regardless of position," general manager Rick Spielman said last weekend after making Carlson the 167th overall selection.
When the Vikings drafted Walsh in the sixth round in 2012, they released reliable incumbent Ryan Longwell the day after the rookie minicamp was complete. The same scenario played out in 2013 with punter Jeff Locke
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"Kai's done really good this spring," coach Mike Zimmer said. "So we're just going to let them go out there and kick."
Carlson made all 198 extra points he attempted in college, albeit from 20 yards and not 33 yards, to set an SEC record. He went 92 for 114 on field goals. Factor in a strong performance at the Senior Bowl in January, and the Vikings were interested. They sent special teams coordinator Mike Priefer to Auburn for one of five private workouts Carlson conducted after the scouting combine, and Carlson and Priefer immediately hit it off.
Carlson was one of the eight draftees among 66 players assembled by the Vikings for workouts this weekend, including 31 players invited on a tryout basis.
The 17 college free agents signed earlier this week included cornerback Holton Hill from Texas and linebacker Hercules Mata'afa of Washington State, considered two of the top undrafted players. Among the unsigned prospects aiming to follow the lead of Marcus Sherels in 2010 and Adam Thielen in 2013, as tryout players who earned a contract after the rookie minicamp and eventually made the team, are safety Mackenro Alexander of Iowa State
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None of these players, even first-round cornerback Mike Hughes, carry the potential to impact the Vikings in 2018 as much as Carlson.
"I knew what I was coming into, and I'm excited to get to work," said Carlson, a three-time Lou Groza Award finalist and the SEC special teams player of the year for the last two seasons. "Hopefully, I'll prove to these coaches and the rest of this team that I deserve to be here."
Make those high-pressure kicks, and they'll quickly develop that respect.
"You kind of figure it out with a little maturity and handling those big moments," Carlson said, "but I think as a kicker that's what we're supposed to live for."
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