Boston Bruins
“The way that we lost it is just brutal, spending half the game in the penalty box.”
Charlie McAvoy and the Bruins came up short against the Lightning. AP Photo/Chris O’Meara
February 2, 2026 | 7:55 AM
10 minutes to read
TAMPA — Sunday’s Stadium Series showdown between the Bruins and Lightning had a bit of everything.
A flurry of goals from Boston’s roster. A four-goal comeback by Tampa Bay. Several Grade-A stops in overtime. Officiating controversy. And yes — a goalie fight.
Here are 11 takeaways from Boston’s 6-5 shootout loss to the Lightning under the lights at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.
Bruins drop a frustrating result in Tampa
There’s a whole lot to process in a game rife with several twists and turns for both clubs.
Beyond the pageantry of an outdoor, primetime contest and several headline-grabbing sequences like a goalie scrap, the Bruins largely controlled play for a majority of Sunday’s matchup against a Lightning team that entered the night on a 16-1-1 run.
Boston — already playing without its top-two centers in Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha — largely controlled play for the first half of Sunday’s game against the top team in the Eastern Conference.
Midway through the second period, the Bruins held a 5-1 lead over Tampa Bay — with an 11-2-1 record in January seemingly carrying over into the next month for Boston.
But the Bruins’ propensity for ill-timed penalties completely unraveled a strong showing from Boston, with the Bolts scoring three power-play tallies in the second period to get back into the game before eventually prevailing in the shootout.
Yes, Bruins fans can take umbrage with some of the calls down the stretch — or perhaps the lack of penalties doled out against Tampa. And yep, we’ll talk more about David Pastrnak’s OT goal getting waved off.
Still, this is a game where some of the flaws that have hampered the Bruins all year once again came back to bite Boston.
“Listen, we all have good days. We all have bad days. And again, I have to look at some other calls,” Marco Sturm said postgame. “I know some of them were not in our favor. I can tell you that we do have to do a better job and they probably have to do a better job too.
“So again, overall, I don’t blame them. It always comes back to us. And if you give a guy like [Nikita] Kucherov 10 minutes on the power play, you know you did something wrong. So that’s on us.”
Not exactly shorts weather
When the NHL initially announced an outdoor game in Tampa last year, the league was looking to push the envelope on how it’d be able to host primetime games in less-than-ideal conditions.
The average high on February 1 in Tampa is 71 degrees, which would stand as the warmest puck-drop temperature for a game in NHL history.
As such, the NHL pulled out all the stops in order to keep the ice intact during the lead-up to Sunday’s game — building a state-of-the-art tent over the frozen sheet that remained in place until late Saturday night.
Ultimately, the NHL didn’t need to fret all that much over the conditions on Sunday.
Due to a sizable cold front that involved all of the Sunshine State, Sunday’s temperature at puck drop was 41.8 degrees — and dipped into the 30s as the game progressed.
Ironically, Sunday’s temps were colder than the 2023 Winter Classic held at Fenway Park — with the thermometers reading at 51 degrees at puck drop in early January.
As entertaining as it would be to see the Bruins and Bolts battle it out in 60-degree weather, the Bruins had no qualms over the conditions on Sunday in Tampa.
“I want it to be colder, so the ice is better,” McAvoy said Saturday.
As expected, even the chilly conditions in Tampa didn’t lead to pristine ice conditions.
“It’s real soft,” McAvoy added. “Obviously we get it after [Tampa] practiced on it. I don’t know how many people skated on it before, but yeah, it’s not great.”
Despite the chilly temps, Sunday’s game leaned heavily into nautical references along Florida’s usually sunny-shoreline — with plenty of pirate themes littered across the game presentation.
Country music star Tim McGraw also performed a few songs during the first intermission — donning a winter beanie instead of his customary cowboy hat.
Repping the Patriots
After arriving dressed as the Peaky Blinders, the Red Sox, and a ski crew straight of the ‘90s in previous outdoor games, the Bruins paid tribute to the both the Patriots and Boston’s colonial history on Sunday.
Ahead of Sunday’s Stadium Series game against the Lightning at Raymond James Stadium, the Bruins arrived at the outdoor matchup dressed as colonial-era patriots — donning tricorne hats, shoe buckles, wigs, and much more.
“I think it was a lot of guys,” Nikita Zadorov said of the inspiration behind the outfit. “The idea behind it was kind of bring something Bostonian. I think, with the ties to Boston, and obviously Boston is known as a really historical city in the United States.
“And so we decided to dress up as the Patriots from the 17th, 16th century. Obviously, give respect to the founding fathers of America. And also it’s good ties to our football team, you know what I mean? We’re at the football stadium, so I thought it played out pretty well.”
While the Patriots landed in California on Sunday evening as they prepared for Super Bowl LX, the Bruins took care of business later that night in Tampa.
A sluggish start
It was looking like it was going to be a long night for the Bruins, based on the first 11 seconds of regulation.
Before the smoke from a barrage of fireworks had even cleared out of Raymond James Stadium, the Lightning took a lead — with Brandon Hagel beating Jeremy Swayman with the first shot of the game with 19:49 left in the first.
It was an ugly sequence all around, with three skaters unable to separate Hagel from the puck before the winger snapped a wrister past Swayman to put the road team in a deficit. It was the fastest goal scored by a player in an outdoor NHL game.
Considering that the Bolts had already won 16 of their last 18 games entering Sunday’s matchup — and Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy sporting a .921 save percentage on the year — even a slim one-goal deficit was looking pretty steep.
Bruins surge back with trio of goals
After taking that first jab from Hagel and the Bolts, the Bruins put the Lightning on the ropes for the rest of the first period — scoring three unanswered goals and outshooting Tampa, 20-7, for the final 19:49 of play before the first intermission.
Alex Steeves picked a good time to snap a 15-game goalless drought at 11:24, taking a feed from Mikey Eyssimont and snapping home a one-timer from the slot to knot the game up at 1-1. It was Steeves’ first goal since Dec. 23, 2025.
Morgan Geekie gave Boston the lead a little over four minutes later, tipping home a point shot from Charlie McAvoy that slipped past Vasilevskiy to make it a 2-1 lead.
Boston struck on the power play at 18:03, with a similar McAvoy shot redirected this time by Viktor Arvidsson to give Boston a two-goal cushion going into the break.
Poitras, Geekie pad Boston’s lead
Things didn’t get any better for Tampa at the start of the second period.
Matt Poitras — playing in just his second goal with Boston after getting called up from Providence last week — gave Boston a three-goal lead just 2:22 into the middle frame.
A strong play on the puck by Mark Kastelic allowed the Bruins forward to evade both Victor Hedman and Max Crozier and skate into Tampa’s zone. After shielding the puck near the half-wall, Kastelic hit Poitras in stride as he made it down the slot and beat Vasilevsky with a sharp backhand shot to make it a 4-1 contest.
Poitras (21 years, 328 days) became the youngest Bruins player to score in an outdoor game, beating the previous record set by David Pastrnak (22 years, 221 days) during the 2019 Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium.
Pastrnak helped further spark Geekie’s heater in the second — setting his linemate up with a slick cross-slot feed to give Boston a four-goal cushion. Geekie’s 32nd goal of the season marked his seventh goal and 10th point in his last seven games.
It was looking like the Bruins were cruising towards a blowout victory … until things became completely unglued.
Swayman, Vasevskiy drop the gloves
Things went off the rails midway through the second period after Brandon Hagel tried to poke a loose puck past Swayman’s pads in the crease.
Both McAvoy and Swayman shoved Hagel to the ice in the ensuing fracas, drawing the ire of Vasilevskiy down the other end of the frozen sheet.
As over 64,000 fans roared in approval, Swayman and Vasilevskiy both skated towards each other and shed their gloves, blockers, and masks before trading a few punches.
It wasn’t a vintage heavyweight bout, with both netminders clumsily trading a few hooks and avoiding any knockout blows before Swayman eventually fell to the ice. But in what turned out to be a wild night at Raymond James Stadium, a goalie fight was a fitting scene given all the chaos that played out.
Parade of penalties allow Bolts to claw back
By the time Swayman and Vasilevskiy made their way back to their nets after a scrap, the Bruins were seemingly in complete command of the game.
Yes, Oliver Bjorkstrand did find the back of the net less than a minute before their goalie bout, but Boston still held a convincing 5-2 lead at the time.
However, that Tampa power-play goal — scored after McAvoy was whistled for roughing against Zemgus Girgensons — started a nuclear chain reaction of ill-timed penalties for Boston, giving Tampa the spark it needed to get back into the game.
Even taking out the goalie-fight infractions, the Bruins were still whistled for five more penalties after McAvoy’s initial roughing in the second — including another roughing call against McAvoy, a Kastelic roughing, delay of game for Swayman, interference on Tanner Jeannot, and a whistle against Sean Kuraly for closing his hand on a puck.
That string of penalties gave Tampa the opportunity it needed to make it a one-goal game — with Darren Raddysh and Nick Paul both scoring on 5-on-3 bids to make it a 5-4 contest going into the third period.
A third-period equalizer and frantic overtime
The Bruins’ efforts to hold on for a hard-fought 5-4 win eventually fizzled out in the third period.
As Boston tried to turn the already lackluster ice into more of a slog for the high-skilled Lightning roster, Tampa finally broke through the game-tying tally off the stick of Kucherov — who uncorked a one-time blast past Swayman to knot the game up at 5-5 with 8:10 to go.
After letting Tampa sneak back into the game with a bevy of penalties, the Bruins’ slim margin for error was finally erased with a playmaking force like Kucherov leading the charge. The Bolts winger finished with four points in the win.
Kucherov nearly ended the game once it carried into overtime, skating in alone against Swayman on a breakaway. But with just over 30 seconds left in the extra frame, Swayman got enough on Kucherov’s wrister to keep the game going.
The Lightning outshot Boston, 9-0, in overtime — which also featured two more penalties whistled against Pastrnak and Hampus Lindholm. Swayman turned aside all nine shots in a game that could have been ended in regulation given Tampa’s play down the stretch.
Pastrnak’s OT winner taken off the board
The wackiest play of the night came just 22 seconds into overtime — with Pastrnak appearing to close out the game with a Bruins victory after he beat Vasilevskiy on a 2-on-1 opportunity.
But before Pastrnak could celebrate with his teammates, he was ushered to the penalty box for a slash — negating the goal and giving Tampa a chance to close the game out with an extra skater.
Despite slashing Tampa skater J.J. Moser, the Bruins didn’t hear a whistle during the ensuing rush down the ice. With one ref having his arm up and the Bruins in possession of the puck, Swayman even skated his way to Boston’s bench for an extra attacker.
Instead, no dice for the Bruins in what was a frustrating night in Tampa.
“I have no clue what happened,” Pastrnak said postgame. “It’s a freakin’ turnover, we’ve got a 2-on-1, the referee has his arm up, he’s letting me go, Sway’s going to the bench, we finished the play, score a goal and all of a sudden I’m in the penalty box. It’s a joke. I don’t understand.
“I’ve never seen something like that. To me it was a joke. I don’t care if that’s a bad answer, but that’s how I feel. It’s weird. Score a goal and end up in the penalty box. Whatever. We gave them two points and that’s what matters. Tough on us.”
A loss in the shootout
Pastrnak’s failed OT tally was the last chance Boston had to try and beat Vasilevskiy, as Jake Guentzel scored the lone goal of the shootout round to seal the 6-5 comeback win for Tampa.
Pastrnak had a shot at extending the shootout into the fourth round, but his attempt rang off the post to close out an ugly result for Boston.
“That hurts. It hurts a lot,” McAvoy said postgame. “The way that we lost it is just brutal, spending half the game in the penalty box.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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