Great teams tend to be great in the third period. That makes sense, right? They know how to close out games if they're leading in the third. They're also never completely out of games if they're trailing in the third.
Consider the 2023-24 Bruins a bit of an outlier so far. They have the best record in the NHL. Yet, they have not been a great third-period team. The latest evidence of that: Monday's 5-4 overtime loss to the Lightning down in Tampa.
The Bruins took a pair of third-period leads, but let both of them slip away. After going up 3-2 with 12:13 to go, they allowed the Lightning to score less than a minute later. After taking a 4-3 lead with 3:51 remaining, they handed Tampa Bay a late power play. While they managed to kill that, they surrendered the tying goal seconds later, with just five seconds left in regulation.
Brandon Hagel scored 1:19 into overtime to hand the Bruins their fourth loss of the season, three of which have come in overtime.
For the season, the Bruins still have a positive goal differential in the third period, but it's just a plus-3. That's 15th-best in the NHL, smack in the middle of the pack. They're plus-12 in the first period (first in the NHL) and plus-9 in the second (fourth in the NHL).
Of the 37 total goals the Bruins have given up this season, 18 of them (48.6%) have come in the third period. That's the highest percentage in the NHL, and it's more than they've allowed in the first and second periods combined (16).
While Monday's game doesn't qualify here, it's also worth noting that the Bruins are 9-1-2 when leading after two this season. Their three losses in such situations are tied for the most in the NHL, and are already as many as they had all of last season. Their .750 winning percentage ranks 21st.
Now, we also need to add some perspective. The Bruins, of course, have allowed the fewest goals in the NHL. Those 18 third-period goals allowed are still tied for the 11th-fewest of any team. It's not like they've been horrible in the third period; they just haven't been as good as they've been in the first 40 minutes of games.
Monday's loss in particular bore a lot of similarities to their loss to Anaheim on Oct. 26, when they surrendered two goals in the final two minutes and lost 4-3 in overtime. They had too many failed clears in their own zone and a couple opportunities to get the puck in deep from the neutral zone, only to not do so. They took a costly late penalty in both games, too, which brings up another issue: they've taken the fourth-most minor penalties in the NHL this season.
The 3-3 goal came after some poor puck management. Mason Lohrei butchered a retrieval during a Tampa Bay line change, playing the puck into traffic instead of away from it. From there, Pavel Zacha threw a blind pass up the boards that was kept in the zone, Lohrei couldn't quite cut off a passing lane, and Brad Marchand was a split-second late closing on goal-scorer Austin Watson.
After Charlie Coyle got the lead back for Boston, Johnny Beecher – who scored earlier in the game – high-sticked Nick Perbix. It wasn't malicious or intentional, but it was a bit careless. It was also the Bruins' seventh penalty of the game.
This is the part where we'll address the officiating: It was poor. Two of the calls against the Bruins (Lohrei's hook and McAvoy's interference) were borderline at best. Pastrnak's roughing should have come with a matching rough on Brandon Hagel. Pastrnak and Brad Marchand both appeared to get hooked on grade-A scoring chances, but neither got the call.
All that said, the Bruins still had two third-period leads, and the penalties they took in the third were real penalties.
It was after Beecher's penalty that things really started to feel like that Anaheim game. Derek Forbort got his pocket picked on one potential clear and had a soft flip easily knocked down on another. Marchand had a chance to get the puck in deep from the neutral zone, but instead tried a cross-ice pass to Coyle that got picked off and turned right back up ice.
The final and most crucial failed clear came from Zacha with 10 seconds left, when he tried flipping the puck past Victor Hedman instead of just hammering it down the ice. Hedman kept it in – barely – and five seconds later Steven Stamkos blasted a one-timer past Jeremy Swayman.
"I think we need to develop a little more poise and understanding of time and score and how to close out games," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said after the game. "Obviously we gave up two leads in the third. We never want to do that."
The Bruins hoped they had developed more of that poise and understanding after that Ducks loss last month. They had in some of their recent wins, but Monday night was a painful reminder that they still have work to do when it comes to closing out games.
