The Bruins beat the Lightning 2-1 in overtime Friday night in Tampa in what felt like a playoff game. They took sole possession of third place in the Atlantic Division with the win, and they did it without David Pastrnak and Hampus Lindholm.
A big reason they were able to do all that was Linus Ullmark. The veteran goalie continued his best stretch of play as a Bruin with a lights-out performance, stopping 28 of the 29 shots he faced.
Ullmark's best work came in the third period, when he stopped all 11 shots he faced to force overtime. He came up with three big saves on an early Lightning power play, turning aside two Steven Stamkos one-timers and another quality look from Nikita Kucherov. A few minutes after that, he denied Brayden Point on a partial breakaway by taking away the whole bottom of the net.
"In the third, it seemed like of the first 10 minutes, about seven minutes was probably in our end," coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game. "So he [Ullmark] has to stay engaged in the game because you never know where the shot is coming from. And then I thought he played the puck well, like when he was supposed to help get out on the kill on dump-ins, moving it up quick in certain situations.
"Just everything a little more on his toes lately. So, good. That's what we want. They have a world-class goaltender [Andrei Vasilevskiy]. You're gonna need a great game from that position if you're gonna beat Tampa typically. I thought that was a good goaltender's battle tonight. We were just one better."
In Ullmark's last seven appearances (six starts, one in relief), he is now 6-0-0 with a .938 save percentage. That has coincided with Jeremy Swayman's roughest stretch of the season -- 6-3-0 with an .883 save percentage in his last nine games -- which means the discussion about who's the Bruins' No. 1 goalie is officially open again.
Swayman clearly outplayed Ullmark in January and February, and Cassidy acknowledged multiple times during that stretch that Swayman was "a little ahead" of Ullmark. But it's clear that things have been shifting lately.
Just the fact that Ullmark got the start Friday night -- on the road against the two-time defending Cup champs, with third place on the line -- was telling. Swayman had been getting most of those "big game" starts for a while, which was understandable given that he looked like the No. 1 and the Bruins wanted to get him ready for playoff-type games.
Cassidy acknowledged before Friday's game that Ullmark has been better recently and that the competition is very much still open.
"They've both played well for the most part. Linus probably has been a little more consistent than Jeremy of late," Cassidy said, according to NESN. "Sway's been pretty steady, little bit of a blip here. We're going to let him play through it. Hopefully he finds it again and we go right down to the wire with good choices in that regard. Thinking ahead to the playoffs, who would be the guy, we're undecided right now. Could be both. Not sure yet."
Obviously, the Bruins would love to have both Ullmark and Swayman on a roll going into the playoffs. It's fair to say that Swayman still has the higher ceiling of the two. That's why he'll continue to get opportunities over these final 11 games to get back on track. And his excellent play prior to this recent skid is why no one's really panicking over the rookie yet.
But with Swayman in a bit of a rut, the Bruins are certainly grateful to at least have Ullmark going well, and they'd be foolish not to consider the possibility that he might be the one to earn that Game 1 start come playoffs. That's why Ullmark might get a second straight start Sunday in Washington; Cassidy said Friday night that no decision had been made yet.
While Ullmark has had some ups and downs this season, Cassidy credited his work behind the scenes with goalie coach Bob Essensa as a big reason he's hitting an upswing at the perfect time.
"He's put in good work with Bob," Cassidy said. "We asked him like, 'You're used to being the number one. In between your starts, have to punch the clock. You have to get your work done to sort of round out your game.' I think he's done a really, really good job getting the reps in. I think all those things have helped him, but specifically, I think that would help a guy as much as anything when you're conditioning yourself to handle these workloads, and you're working on your technique when you're not playing so it can become a little more automatic."
Being motivated by meaningful games late in the season -- something Ullmark never experienced in Buffalo -- can't hurt either.
"It's just fun," Ullmark said Friday night. "It's fun to play these sort of games when it's getting closer to playoffs and you're actually a part of it. It's a lot at stake. There's still 11 games to go to focus on. We're not trying to get ahead of ourselves or anything like that. We're trying to battle for home-ice advantage, and we have to bring it every night."
