Lightning rally multiple times to pick up road win
BOSTON -- The Tampa Bay Lightning, fighting to stay alive in the playoff hunt, quickly wiped out three one-goal deficits and struck for three goals in the third period to stun the fading Boston Bruins 6-3 on Thursday night.
The Lightning, ending a three-game losing streak, handed the Bruins their fourth straight defeat and climbed to within three points of Boston for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot with a game in hand.
Jonathan Drouin broke a 13-game scoring drought by beating Tuukka Rask with a slap shot 4:12 into the third period as Tampa Bay won for the first time in four games versus Boston this season.
Nikita Kucherov followed with his second goal of the game and he completed his hat trick with his 37th goal of the season into an empty net. Ondrej Palat picked up his third assist of the game on the goal.
Drouin added two assists, and Brayden Point and Anton Stralman also scored. Point added an assist and Victor Hedman had two assists.
The Lightning scored four goals in a 12-shot span in the second and third periods.
Rask, strong at the start but shaky later on, finished with 23 saves.
Peter Budaj made 28 saves and raised his record to 5-1 at TD Garden. He lost to the Bruins twice earlier this season, once in Boston, while playing for the Los Angeles Kings.
David Pastrnak, Zdeno Chara and Riley Nash scored for the Bruins. Nash added an assist and Dominic Moore had two.
Lightning defenseman Jason Garrison had to be helped off the ice in the second period because of a lower body injury and did not return.
It took the Lightning 44 seconds to answer the first Bruins goal, 24 seconds to answer the second and 1:35 the third.
After a scoreless first period, Pastrnak took a pass from Patrice Bergeron for a power play goal 1:33 into the second period -- Pastrnak's first goal in three games but his sixth in the last eight.
Point delivered on a rebound to tie it and Brandon Carlo was off when Chara scored Boston's 10th short-handed goal of the season -- the seventh allowed by the Lightning. But as that one was being announced, Kucherov banged home a Mason Drouin pass for his fourth goal in three games.
Nash, circling behind the net, banked the puck off Hedman for his first goal in 11 games, with 6:42 left in the wild period. But Stralman finished off a four-on-two for his first goal since Jan. 12.
NOTES: Lightning C/captain Steven Stamkos still isn't sure he will make it back from knee surgery before the end of the season, but he's trying. "The knee is a tricky situation," he said after skating Thursday morning in Boston. "It's something I've never had to deal with before. It's all new to me." He hasn't played since Nov. 15. ... C Tyler Johnson, who suffered a lower-body injury on March 9, also remained out for Tampa Bay. ... The Lightning visit the Bruins again April 4. ... Zdeno Chara became the first Bruins defenseman with at least two short-handed goals in a season since Ray Bourque had two in 1995-96. ... The Lightning are at Detroit on Friday night and the Bruins have an important game against the Islanders in Brooklyn on Saturday night.