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Which way does momentum swing? Boston and Tampa Bay figure it out tonight in Game 3

Dwayne Roloson, Michael Ryder

Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Dwayne Roloson, right, makes a save on a shot by Boston Bruins Michael Ryder, left, during the first period of Game 2 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Eastern Conference final playoff series, Tuesday, May 17, 2011, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

AP

Game 3 in a series is almost always a big one. Either a team can seize control of the series and put a team on the brink of elimination or they can seize momentum for at least a day or two and make their opponents sweat things out on the way to Game 4. Tonight’s Game 3 between Boston and Tampa Bay sees the latter come into effect as both sides have come out swinging in the Eastern Conference finals. With the series shifting to Tampa Bay tonight, the Lightning will hope that their run of great play at home will continue.

Boston @ Tampa Bay - 8 p.m. ET (Versus) - Series tied 1-1

Boston comes into Game 3 with Patrice Bergeron looking to make his first appearance of the series and hoping to give the Bruins the edge at forward they were hoping to find all along. With Tyler Seguin doing his part and lighting things up through the first two games (three goals, six points in all) getting Bergeron into the mix would make the Bruins more than formidable across three lines worth of talent. While Milan Lucic has sat out the last two morning skates for the Bruins he’s good to go and will be hoping to make his first line with David Krejci and Nathan Horton more of an offensive force than they have been.

Both the Lightning and Bruins have some things to work on in tonight’s game and while we doubt there’ll be another goalfest like we had in Game 2, Tampa Bay will be hoping they can get a solid bounce back game from Dwayne Roloson. Roloson gave up six goals in Game 2 before being lifted in favor of Mike Smith. Roloson is prone to have games like this on occasion but he always comes back improved the following game. Tampa will need that from him tonight as they’ve been continuing to bring tons of offense to the playoffs scoring five goals in both Game 1 and Game 2.

Expect to see the Lightning’s top three lines to get things rolling even more on home ice and look for Guy Boucher to get the right lines out there against Boston to try and stir things up. Tampa’s been solid throughout the playoffs and while they rattled off eight wins in a row in the postseason and a let down can be expected at some point, Tampa will have to tighten things up to make sure it doesn’t turn into a losing streak.

Expect tonight’s affair to be as harsh and tough checking as it’s been all playoffs as we’re betting Boucher and Claude Julien put their teams to the task to get better defensively. Tampa Bay’s found ways to counter all strategies so far through the playoffs and they’ll need to do it again tonight. While the focus is on Seguin, we’ll be watching Steve Stamkos to see if the goal he got in the third period in Game 2 is what the doctor ordered to get his game rolling again.