If hockey was played five-on-five for sixty straight minutes, the Tampa Bay Lightning may have stolen a victory from the Boston Bruins on Thursday night at the TD Garden. Unfortunately, special teams are a part of the game. The Lightning wasted over three minutes of five-on-three power-play time and allowed two shorthanded goals on their way to a 3-1 loss to open the 2013-14 season.

Despite what the scoreboard says, the Lightning did a lot of really good things on Thursday. Playing in Boston against the reigning Eastern Conference champions isn’t going to be easy for any team this year, but the Lightning held their own for most of the game. In addition to generating scoring chances, the Bolts also controlled the puck for lengthy stretches of the contest. For a team looking to improve its possession numbers, there were some encouraging signs.

Excluding one big blemish, which we’ll get to in a moment, the Lightning had a really solid opening frame. They came out of the gate with jump and generated chances right from the get-go. Tuukka Rask was equal to the task, however, and prevented the Lightning from getting on the board. He stopped all fifteen shots the Lightning fired his way in period one.

Unfortunately, it only takes one mistake to ruin a perfectly decent period at the National Hockey League level. With the Lightning on the power-play, rookie defenseman Mark Barberio coughed up the puck in the neutral zone and followed up by hooking Chris Kelly, who stole the puck and broke in all alone. The referees awarded Kelly a penalty shot, and he made no mistake. His nifty deke move gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead, and took a lot of the wind out of the Lightning’s sails.

Radko Gudas introduced himself to the Bruins faithful nine minutes into the second period when he demolished Jarome Iginla with a clean, open-ice hit. For whatever reason, clean hits now start fights at the NHL level and so Radko and Jarome went toe-to-toe. After a lackluster start to the middle frame, the Lightning had their spark. Radko Gudas’ hit and fight seemingly lit a fire under many of the team’s players. For the rest of the second, the Lightning controlled the pace of play and looked like a team capable of grabbing victory.

The Lightning tied the game only minutes after Gudas’ fight when Valtteri Filppula tapped home a great feed from “Mr. Opening Night” Eric Brewer. Brewer danced around Daniel Paille and sent Filppula a beautiful cross-ice pass. Filppula’s first as a Bolt gave the Lightning a much needed dose of life. It’s worth noting that the former Red Wing had a very impressive debut with the Bolts. In addition to scoring, he was a wizard with the puck. His stickhandling and shiftiness almost always allowed him free passage into the Bruins zone.

With the game tied and momentum on their side, things looked good for the Lightning. That was until Milan Lucic fired a laser past Anders Lindback with only one minute left in the middle frame. Last minute goals hurt; there’s no two ways about it. Lucic’s marker was no exception.

The Bruins gifted the Lightning another five-on-three opportunity just two minutes into the third period and opened the door for a Lightning comeback. Disappointingly, the Lightning failed to convert. Even worse, Patrice Bergeron scored a shorthanded goal to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead. With so much offensive firepower laden throughout the roster, the Lightning must find a way to convert on power-play opportunities. There is no excuse for throwing away chances like the Lightning did on Thursday. Just as it was last season, overpassing still appears to be a problem for the group.

Try as they might, the Bolts were unable to get anything more past Tuukka Rask. As Kyle Alexander from Raw Charge said on Twitter, the difference between the Bruins and Lightning tonight was that Tuukka Rask was always there to make a huge save whenever the Bruins made a mistake. While very solid, Anders Lindback wasn’t there to make every big save for the Lightning like Rask was for the Bruins. Goaltending can win games in the NHL.

As mentioned, it’s not as though the Lightning didn’t do anything well against the Bruins. The sample size is small, but the Lightning look so much better right now than they did to end last year. Facing the Bruins in Boston is always a challenge. The Lightning need to look at the positives from tonight’s game, review their mistakes, and shift their focus onto the Chicago Blackhawks. Things don’t get any easier from here.

As always, thanks for reading.

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