BOSTON (AP) — Anthony Cirelli scored twice and the Tampa Bay Lightning held Boston without a shot in the second period in a 6-2 victory over the Bruins on Saturday night.

Nick Paul, Victor Hedman and Darren Raddysh added goals to help Tampa Bay snap a three-game skid. Cirelli and Ben Hagel had empty-netters.

Elias Lindholm and Marat Khusnutdinov scored for the Bruins. They are 2-2 since trading three longtime cornerstone players — including captain Brad Marchand — at the deadline.

Paul’s goal off a rebound from the left edge of the crease made it 2-1 at 2:13 of the second.

Coming off a shootout loss at Philadelphia, the Lightning jumped ahead on Hedman’s goal on the second rebound out of a scramble early into the game.

Lindholm’s one-timed a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy off a nifty feed from Andrew Peeke, tying it in the opening period.

The teams faced each other for the second time in eight days after Boston won at Tampa Bay in its first game after the trades.

Takeaways

Lightning: Despite scuffling lately following an outstanding February when they went 7-0-1, they’re still in position to make a run at one of the Atlantic Division’s top two seeds.

Bruins: They move closer to being eliminated from postseason play for the first time since 2016 as they sit outside a crowded wild-card chase.

Key moment

With Tampa Bay leading 2-1 seconds after its power play expired, Cirelli, positioned in the slot, tipped Ryan McDonagh’s shot past Jeremy Swayman.

Key stat

Boston was outshot 20-0 in the second. It was the Bruins’ second period this season without a shot on goal. Before that, they hadn’t had a period without one since 2007. The Bruins finished with 12 shots on goal.

Up next

Both teams play Monday night. The Lightning host Philadelphia, and the Bruins host Buffalo.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The Broncos ownership might be looking at a Denver suburb.

To build or not to build, that is the question that is being pondered by the National Football League’s Denver Broncos ownership. Do we want a new stadium or renovate the present stadium or do we want to move to a different location in the Denver area. Broncos president Damani Leech said the decision is coming soon. The football franchise’s deal with the local municipality ends following the 2030 season. Generally, owners begin making noise about the need to either renovate a facility or build an entirely new venue about seven years prior to the end of a lease agreement.

It appears that Broncos’ ownership has an eye on a number of spots that could house a new stadium including places in Denver. The latest location of interest for Broncos’ ownership is Lone Tree, which is about 15 miles south of where the current stadium is located and near the Broncos’ team facility in Englewood. Lone Tree could not handle building a Broncos’ stadium by itself. The town has a population of about 14,000 people. It is the home to Colorado’s largest shopping mall and is a bedroom community, a Denver suburb. For a stadium to be built in Lone Tree, Broncos’ ownership and Colorado taxpayers would have to put up money.  In 2023, Broncos’ ownership began reaching out to its customers in a quest to find out what the people paying the bills wanted. The National Football League is in a new cycle of stadium building, whether it is a new venue or simply renovating an old facility. Ownership groups in Baltimore, Buffalo, Jacksonville and Nashville are getting new or renovated facilities with a good chunk of the funding for the venues coming from taxpayers. Owners in Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Washington want new stadium deals. It is just business.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com

Expansion may not even occur.

When the learned people and the elders get together this weekend to figure out what colleges belong in the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament, which to TV people and media members is also known as March Madness, they will choose 37 schools to go along with 31 other schools who have automatic slots in the basketball festival. But this might be the last year of just 68 teams crammed into a playoff setting. There could be as few as four schools or as many as eight schools or maybe none added to the proceedings next year.

“I do think that there will be an opportunity to make a decision about ’26 sometime in the coming months, but if that decision is not to move forward with expansion, I don’t know that that is going to resolve the issue over the next five-to-eight years either,” NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt told CBS Sports. “Could be that the smartest thing to do is to wait and see whether or not the House settlement happens and is approved by the judge on April 7^th, what the ramifications of that going forward are, and whether this should be a topic that is considered a year or two from now, more so than it is right now.” Grant House and Sedona Prince sued the  National Collegiate Athletic Association in a class action lawsuit brought against the NCAA and five collegiate athletic conferences in which the NCAA agreed to allow its member institutions to distribute funds to Division I athletes who have played since 2016. On May 23^rd, 2024, the NCAA voted to settle the lawsuit for $2.75 billion setting up a mechanism to distribute up to $20 billion to Division I athletes who have played since 2016. The proposed settlement must still be approved by Judge Claudia Wilken. College basketball is a business.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com