Boston Bruins: Rask snaps losing streak in 3-2 victory over Lightning

The Boston Bruins goaltender finally returned to form with a solid effort in a 3-2 win over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Boston Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Friday night, but more importantly, their goaltender finally had a great game.

Tuukka Rask stopped 19 shots on the night. Even with the low shot total, he made some impressive saves. On an odd-man rush at the end of the second period, he made a great pad save on Nikita Kucherov. Also near the end of the third Rask made a clutch save against Ryan Callahan to maintain the Bruins lead.

The two goals that Rask gave up weren’t that terrible. The first goal was a shot from the point and Rask had at least five people around the net. It went through his five-hole but it was a tough save. The goal from Steven Stamkos was a result of a great slap pass from Kucherov on the power play.

Overall it was a good night for Rask. He needs to maintain this level of play and not relapse into the player he was earlier this season.

Bruins come out energized

The past couple of games Rask has been in net the Bruins have tended to come out flat in the first period. This time they did not.

Charlie McAvoy continues to prove that he is going to be one of the best defensemen in the NHL. He is a great two-way player. NESN‘s Jack Edwards spoke about how people around the league look at McAvoy.

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McAvoy had a blast from the point and now has three goals on the season. He is a top-five scorer on the team and he and Torey Krug are tied for most assists on the season.

Later in the first period, Riley Nash extended the Bruins lead to two with a beautiful snipe in the top corner of the net. Nash has been a great depth player especially with all the injuries this team has been dealing with. He is normally on the bottom two lines but played great last night on the second line.

The Bruins also had a great performance from Torey Krug. He has struggled in the past couple games but was able to score a goal last night to extend his season total to four.

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The Bruins face the Philadelphia Flyers in a Saturday matinee. With Tuukka Rask getting the victory he will probably get the start. The Bruins hope Wednesday was not a fluke and the Tuukka Rask who can win games for this team is back.

(P.S. This hit by Cedric Paquette was awful glad to see that Torey Krug was okay.)