Troiani Rink Report

Boston Suffered Its first loss of the season

The Bruins took a three-game winning streak into the final game of a season opening home stand hoping for a sweep before heading out on the road for their next three games.

Boston put up a fight after a slow start, but could not complete the comeback from a three-goal deficit and suffered a 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden on Monday afternoon.

The Lightning twice had a three-goal lead, but the Bruins rallied to cut the deficit to one in the second period. Unfortunately for Marco Sturm, his club was unable to score the equalizer in the final frame and suffered its first loss of the 2025-26 campaign.

While the Bruins had won their first three games of the season, the Lightning lost their first two games and came into Boston looking for their first win.

“They came ready to play. They lost two in a row,” Sturm told reporters after the loss. “We know from their starting six, we knew they wanted to get to work right away and we just were not ready. That’s why we made mistakes and that’s why it ended up with four (goals), pretty much, on an empty net.”

The Bruins’ penalty kill remained perfect in the loss, killing off both of Tampa Bay’s power plays. However, Boston suffered an outage on its own man-advantages — unable to score on any of its five power plays.

“The power play, we were just a little too slow. Yes, the plays were there, but our puck speed was not there and we need them,” Sturm said. “Those are those moments, in those tight hockey games, especially against a veteran team like Tampa, you’ve got to grab those moments. And we just didn’t do it today.”

Despite not recording a power-play goal, Sturm wasn’t surprised by his team’s resilience.

“There was no question in my mind that we were going to stay in the game, even though we were down 2-0. I knew my guys would respond,” he said. “It’s hard in this league to chase the game, especially against a veteran group. And when you’re not ready to play, you’re going to do that. It might work once in a  while.

But I’m a big believer that they wanted it more than us today, especially in the first half. That was the hockey game.”

Here are more notes from Boston’s first loss of the season:
— Joonas Korpisalo made the start in net for the B’s, but he had no chance at making a save on any of Tampa’s four goals — it was breakdowns and turnovers in front of him that led to the goals. It was definitely not the best defensive showing by the Black and Gold this season. Korpisalo made 19 saves in the loss.

— Jordan Harris started for the injured Hampus Lindholm and tallied his first goal as a Bruin in the loss. Harris kept the puck on a 2-on-1 and beat Jonas Johansson with a shortside wrist shot. Casey Mittelstadt and Morgan Geekie were the other two goal scorers for Boston.

— Boston (3-1-0) heads out on a three-game road trip, beginning with Vegas (1-0-2) on Thursday night. Puck drop from T-Mobile Arena is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET on NESN and 98.5 The Sports Hub.

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