The Boston Bruins suffered a sixth straight defeat by falling 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
This rout which continues at the start of the mother-son trip caused them to lose third place in the Atlantic division to Tampa. The Floridians ended a four-game losing streak in their last game against the Hurricanes and now lead the Bruins by one point with five games in hand.
Brothers Morgan and Conor Geekie faced each other for the very first time in front of their mother Tobi and a few other family members.
“It’s the first time we’ve faced each other, we were never close enough in age for it to happen. We usually played together on the same team to help each other out, but not tonight,” said Morgan, who is 6 years older.
Conor, the 11th overall pick in 2020, didn’t get a point, but he ended up on the winning side.
Brayden Point became the third-fastest player to reach 600 points in Bolts history, in 615 games, after Nikita Kucherov (557) and Steven Stamkos (595).
Anthony Cirelly scored his third goal of the season short of a man, tying CH’s Jake Evans and Alex Tuch for second place in the league, behind Sam Reinhart (4).
Brandon Hagel, in an empty net, and Michael Eyssimont were the other scorers. Andrei Vasilevsky made 27 saves.
The two teams will meet again in five days.
A turnover by David Pastrnak in his territory launched Brandon Hagel in a race for the puck and he beat the defender. His shot missed the target, but the rebound went to the paddle of Cirelli who fired a powerful one-timer in the upper part to open the scoring in the second period.
Ryan McDonagh scored an assist giving him his 400th career NHL point. McDonagh is the third player from the 2007 vintage to reach this plateau after PK Subban and Kevin Shattenkirk.
The former first choice of the Montreal Canadiens got another on Eyssimont’s goal which doubled the lead 50 seconds from the end of the period.
Vasilevskiy lost his shutout at 2:05 of the third period because Mason Lohrei was patient in finding the opening in the slot.
After Brandon Hagel’s goal in an empty cage, Brayden Point completed the scoring on the power play.
