Boston Bruins Edge Lightning to Extend Win Streak
It wasn’t a perfect display of hockey by any means, but the Boston Bruins (35-22-10) were still able to defeat the Tampa Lightning (42-20-7) for the 10th time in a row at TD Garden Thursday night, 3-2. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand both scored in a shootout to extend Boston’s winning streak against one of the top clubs in the NHL.
In victory, the Bruins notched their fourth straight win. They’ve now won seven of their last nine games. Marchand’s goal ended a seven-game shootout draught. The Bruins are now just two points back of the Washington Capitals for the seventh overall spot in the Eastern Conference standings.
Boston continued its trend of scoring first when rookie winger David Pastrnak tallied the game’s initial goal in the first on a net-front feed from Ryan Spooner. The goal marked his ninth of the season. He’s now scored in two of his last three games while Spooner extended his points streak to seven games with the helper.
Steven Stamkos buried the equalizing goal later in the opening frame, beating Tuukka Rask on an unassisted bid following a Zdeno Chara turnover. Rask was brilliant in net for the Bruins. He finished with 35 saves on 37 Lightning shot attempts.
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The two sides were unable to score in the second, but Tampa Bay heavily outshot the Bruins by a tune of 16-4 in the period. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop turned aside 28 shots in the game.
Bergeron put the Bruins ahead 2-1 shortly after the third period got underway. He took a beautiful feed in high-slot area and rocketed a one-timer past Bishop for his 19th score of the season. Vladislav Namestnikov responded for the Lightning before the period ended with a goal of his own to force overtime.
“It was one of those games where you have to play against teams that have had a lot of success, have a lot of confidence in themselves, and tonight we came out there and showed that we had a lot of confidence in our group and played like it,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said following the contest.
After a brutal stretch of play in February, the Bruins find themselves back in thick of the playoff picture and suddenly ascending the conference standings. They’ll look to keep it rolling on Saturday when they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins.