BOSTON – The Tampa Bay Lightning were already in Boston when the blizzard shut down the roads, trains and airports. The Bruins and all of the game officials were standing by, too.

But with a state of emergency still in effect through most of Massachusetts, the NHL decided to postpone Saturday’s game. No makeup date had been scheduled. The Bruins play in Buffalo tonight.

Other pro teams were forced to rearrange their travel plans because of the storm, which stranded the Knicks in Minnesota and the Spurs in Detroit on Friday night. New York’s airports reopened on Saturday but Logan Airport remained closed into Saturday night.

The Knicks, who played the Timberwolves on Friday night, returned to New York on Saturday for their Sunday matinee against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Spurs, who ended their 11-game winning streak against the Pistons, play the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night.

The Nets took a train home instead of flying from Washington after losing to the Wizards on Friday night, posting a photo of the players boarding a train with the caption, “Backup plan.” The Clippers arrived in New York as scheduled on Saturday.

At least five deaths were blamed on the storm, which dumped as much as three feet of snow in some parts of New England. More than 650,000 homes and businesses lost power, with some not expecting electricity to be restored for days. Wind gusts of over 80 mph were recorded.

By midday Saturday, the National Weather Service reported preliminary snowfall totals of 24.9 inches in Boston, short of the 27.1 inches that fell in the Blizzard of ’78 that left hundreds attending the Beanpot college hockey tournament stuck at the old Boston Garden for days.

The Bruins said Saturday’s game would be rescheduled as soon as a makeup date could be confirmed.


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