The Bruins began the second period by killing the Tampa Bay power play, but only a minute after it ended, Nathan Horton was back in the box, this time for slashing. The Bruins killed that penalty, too, and were able to get their top line back on the ice.
When David Krejci won an attacking-zone faceoff, Milan Lucic took the puck on the wall and fed a pass to Nathan Horton in the high slot and Horton beat Smith high to tie the game.
The goal was the impetus that the Bruins needed to start moving their legs, and start moving their legs they did. Predictably, the open game created a few more chances for Tampa to get pucks on the net, but in the minutes following the Horton marker, Tim Thomas was strong between the pipes.
The rest of the period unfolded much more like a playoff game, with each team trading chances back and forth. Neither Boston nor Tampa Bay were really able to generate any consistency with the puck, however, in spite of two Tampa penalties that put Boston on nearly successive 4-on-3 and 5-on-4 power plays.
When the Bruins returned to full strength, however, Patrice Bergeron was back to his old tricks. After Zdeno Chara opened space on the goal line by winning a battle in the corner, Bergeron swooped in and found Brad Marchand streaking to the net behind Steven Stamkos and threaded him the puck for an easy tap-in that gave Boston its first lead in the series in over 60 minutes.