Tim Thomas and company were listed as the -135 favorites to win the Eastern Conference final prior to the opener on Saturday, with the Tampa Bay Lightning the series underdogs at +115. Tampa Bay, though, shrugged off that slight with an easy 5-2 road win over Boston.

The key to the Bolts' victory was a three-goal blitz in just over a minute of action midway through the first period. Boston couldn't recover.

Sean Bergenheim, Brett Clark and Teddy Purcell had the goals for Tampa Bay in the first period, with Marc-Andre Bergeron and Simon Gagne providing third-period markers for good measure. Bergenheim continues to do his John Druce impression in these playoffs – he now has eight postseason goals.

Dwayne Roloson stopped 31 of 33 shots for Tampa Bay in Game 1's win, while Bruins counterpart Thomas made 29 saves on 33 shots. Thomas, the front-runner for the Vezina Trophy this season, gave up only seven goals in Boston's four-game sweep of the Flyers last round.

Saturday's result also flipped the teams' Stanley Cup futures. Prior to the start of the Eastern Conference final the Bruins were sitting at 5/2 odds to win the Stanley Cup, with Tampa Bay back at 7/2 odds to win their second title in franchise history.

However, by Sunday morning it was Tampa Bay at 5/2 odds to claim the Cup this season, while Boston had fallen to 4/1 odds on that list.  Boston gets a chance to turn around those numbers once again on Tuesday night when they host the Lightning in Game 2 of the series. Puck drop for that matchup is set for 8:00pm ET.

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