Lightning, Bruins square off in Atlantic Division battle

LIGHTNING (12-4-0) at BRUINS (10-5-1)

TV: NHLN-CA, SUN, NESN

Last 10: Tampa Bay 8-2-0; Boston 6-3-1

Season series: This is the third of four meetings between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins. The defending Eastern Conference Champions won 3-1 in Boston on Oct. 3 and 5-0 in Tampa Bay on Oct. 19. Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask allowed one goal on 56 shots in those games.

Big story: The Lightning lead the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference with 24 points and are 5-2-0 on the road. The Bruins (21 points) are 2-0-2 in their past four home games and 7-1-0 against the Atlantic Division.

Team scope:

Lightning: Tampa Bay had a 2-1 lead against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday before a late Henrik Zetterberg goal tied the game. But Teddy Purcell scored his fifth of the season in overtime to give the Lightning a 3-2 win.

The Lightning have won four games in a row.

“It felt great to get the game-winner," Purcell said Saturday. "It felt like every game I was getting two or three looks, but couldn't buy one. Anytime you're in a slump like that it's great to break out, especially when you get your team two big points."

Tampa Bay's penalty kill has allowed one goal in 22 chances in its past seven games. Ben Bishop has been a big part of that, allowing two goals or fewer in each of the past six games.

"We’re proving that we're for real," Steven Stamkos said. "I think a lot of people before the season wouldn't have expected this from us. I think we're building as a team. We played great today. We probably deserved a win in regulation. We stuck with it, and it's a good feeling right now."

Bruins: Playing the Toronto Maple Leafs for the first time since eliminating them from the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, the Bruins used two third-period goals to pull away in a 3-1 win Saturday.

“It was a pretty intense game,” Rask told the Bruins website. “The third period was good hockey and we just ended up getting that goal to win the game.”

Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron each had power-play goals as Boston scored two with the man advantage for the first time since Oct. 5.

“It's something that we’ve worked on for a few years now and now it seems to be clicking and obviously that helps the team a lot. It’s something that we’ve talked a lot about that we needed to be better at,” Bergeron said.

Who's hot: Five of Bruins right wing Reilly Smith's 11 points have come in the past four games. Rask is 3-0-1 with a .948 save percentage and a 1.44 goals against average in his past four games. ... Stamkos has scored in six straight games with points in his past eight. Defenseman Matthew Carle is a plus-six over his past four games.

Injury report: Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid left the game Saturday with a hip injury and is doubtful. … Defensemen Mattias Ohlund (knee), Brian Lee (knee) and forward Tom Pyatt (collarbone) are on IR for the Lightning.