Tuesday night at TD Garden, when Tampa Bay's Adam Hall scored just 13 seconds into the first period of the game to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead, things looked awfully gloomy for the Bruins.
Tampa, after all, was 8-0 in the playoffs when scoring first. The Bruins fought back, scoring only their third power play goal of the playoffs later in the period, but Martin St. Louis scored a pinball goal off the skates of Johnny Boychuk with 6.5 seconds remaining in the period to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead at the first intermission, where they'd also been undefeated with a lead since the playoffs began.
Undefeated, that is, until the wheels fell off in the second period. Tyler Seguin continued his rampant start to the playoffs, netting two goals, including a highlight-reel backhand that evened the score just 53 seconds into the period, before turning into a playmaker and assisting on two Michael Ryder tallies, one of them another power play goal, only Boston's fourth of these playoffs, and their first multi-power play goal game since March 27th.
Add in a tap-in goal from David Krejci, and the Bruins walked off the after 40 minutes with a 6-3 lead that Tampa couldn't quite overcome despite a third-period flourish, as the Bruins took game two to even the series, 6-5.
Nine players in all had multi-point nights, including three from Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos, Boston's Nathan Horton and Ryder, and four from the Lightning's Vincent Lecavalier and the Bruins' Seguin.
Tim Thomas stopped 36 shots to preserve the win as Boston's defense was shaky from start to finish, allowing multiple odd-man rushes and breakaways especially early in periods.