The Bruins erased a two-goal deficit but could not cash in on multiple chances in the third period and overtime before Brayden Point scored the only goal in the shootout to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 win at the Garden.

The B’s had numerous chances to win in overtime but Andrei Vasilevskiy stood. He made a great ave on David Pastrnak on a back-door play from Brad Marchand. Then Marchand almost had Vasilevskiy beaten but he dinged the crossbar.

Charlie Coyle was fouled with 2.6 seconds left in OT and Jim Montgomery pulled Linus Ullmark to make a it a 5-on-3. Charlie McAvoy did get a shot off but Vasilevskiy again made the stop.

The Bruins got their third power play of the third period when Luke Glendening shot the puck out of play form his own zone with 3:46 remaining in regulation. While they generated better chances on it than the first two, the B’s could not get the go-ahead goal.

The Bruins played better in the first period than they had in any of the periods in the two listless losses they suffered last week, but still went into the first intermission down 1-0, thanks to a soft goal by Linus Ullmark just 3:21.

Stay-at-home defenseman Erik Cernak had a clean shot on net from the top of the circles that was fired right at Ulllmark. It appeared as though he made the rather routine stop, but the puck slowly trickled through his pads and ever-so-slowly over the goal line by half an inch, just barely beating Charlie McAvoy’s desperate attempt to keep it out. It was not ruled a goal on the ice, but was rightly counted upon review.

Ullmark would make up for it shortly afterward when he stoned Hart Trophy candidate Nikita Kucherov on a clean breakaway, staying deep in his net to give him little at which to shoot.

After Brad Marchand’s 1,000th game was recognized by the crowd at the first TV timeout, with the captain waving appreciative to the fans,, the B’s started getting some chances. But goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy looked like he was back in his Vezina Trophy-winning form, especially on a strong power play in which the B’s kept it on the Tampa zone for almost the entire two minutes.

The B’s held a 11-6 shot advantage in the first, but had nothing to show for it. And they started the second period on the penalty kill after Danton Heinen high-sticked Kucherov late in the first period.

In the overflow PP time to start the second, Kucherov got both Heinen and Ullmark back. After Ulllmark stopped a Steven Stamkos one-timer, set up by Kucherov, the puck eventually made it’s way back to the right side and Kucherov, who roofed it over Ullmark for a 2-0 Tampa lead at 1:06.

But the B’s scored their first goal in nearly six periods 58 seconds later when Marchand fed Charlie McAvoy at the right point and his long-distance shot beat Vasilevskiy, thanks to a Charlie Coyle screen.

Both teams took their turns in their opponents end for extended stays, but the B’s finally tied it up with 3:37 on a delayed penalty kill. Marchand hopped over the boards and won back a couple of pucks before the Bolts could gain control of it. Finally, he fired a shot that Vasilevskiy stopped but couldn’t freeze. It dropped down in front of Jame van Riemsdyk, who jammed it between the netminder’s pads to make it 2-2.

But there was grave concern when David Pastrnak appeared to suffer some sort of injury with just under two minutes left in the period. Victor Hedman deliver a what looked like a routine body check along the boards, but when Pastrnak tried to spin out of it, he hurt something. He went right to the bench and headed straight down the runway. But Pastrnak did return for the third period.