Tampa Bay earned its first win in four games on Saturday and handed an Atlantic Division opponent a loss in the process, beating the Boston Bruins 6-2 at TD Garden.
Victor Hedman opened the scoring early in the game before Boston tied the score late in the period. Tampa Bay then scored three goals in the second period while outshooting Boston 20 to zero.
The Bruins scored 23 seconds into the third period, but the final result was capped with a pair of empty-net goals from the Lightning.
The Lightning improved to 38-23-5 with Saturday’s win and now return home to AMALIE Arena, where they will host the Philadelphia Flyers (28-31-8) on Monday.
Scoring summary
First period
TBL 1, BOS 0
2:22 Victor Hedman (12) - Yanni Gourde, Darren Raddysh
Tampa Bay didn’t wait long to grab the game’s first lead. Captain Victor Hedman found a rebound near the left goalpost and scored into an open Boston net 2:22 into play.
TBL 1, BOS 1
15:58 Elias Lindholm (12) - Andrew Peeke, Jakub Lauko
The Bruins tied the game on an Elias Lindholm redirection in the slot after defenseman Andrew Peeke had rushed the puck into the right side of the zone and fed a pass to Lindholm.
Shots on goal: TBL 10, BOS 8
Second period
TBL 2, BOS 1
2:13 Nick Paul (20) - Emil Lilleberg, Gage Goncalves
Tampa Bay restored its advantage in the opening segments of period two. Emil Lilleberg’s shot from the left point hit a Boston defender and fell to Nick Paul near the net, and the latter buried the loose puck past Swayman.
TBL 3, BOS 1
7:22 Anthony Cirelli (20) - Ryan McDonagh, Gourde
Forward Anthony Cirelli scored his 21st goal of the season, a new career high, on a redirection in front of the Boston net to extend Tampa Bay’s lead.
TBL 4, BOS 1
17:08 Raddysh (2) - Lilleberg, Paul
The Lightning extended their advantage late in period three. Raddysh released his point shot, which ricocheted off a Boston defender and into the net.
Shots on goal: TBL 20, BOS 0
Third period
TBL 4, BOS 2
00:23 Marat Khusnutdinov (4) - Henri Jokiharju, Lindholm
Boston halved its deficit when forward Marat Khusnutdinov found a loose puck in the blue paint on Boston’s first chance of the third period.
TBL 5, BOS 2
16:31 Brandon Hagel (31) - Nikita Kucherov, Erik Cernak - EN
Brandon Hagel set a new career high in goals with an empty-net tally.
TBL 6, BOS 2
19:15 Cirelli (22) - Hedman, Kucherov - EN
The scoring was closed by a second empty-net goal, this one coming on a Hedman shot that bounced off Cirelli and into the net in the game’s final minute.
Total shots: TBL 39, BOS 12
