Lightning score 3 in 3rd period to rally past Bruins

TAMPA -- Darren Raddysh broke a tie late in the third period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to defeat the Boston Bruins 3-1 at Benchmark International Arena on Saturday.

Raddysh scored his 21st goal to set a Lightning record for the most by a defenseman in a season. The previous mark of 20 was shared by Dan Boyle (2006-07) and Victor Hedman (2021-22).

"I'm fortunate to play with a lot of good players and be put in this position," Raddysh said. "I'm thankful for that."

Charle-Edouard D'Astous and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning (48-22-6), who have won four of their past five games and went 5-1-1 on a seven-game homestand. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves. 

Earlier Saturday, Tampa Bay clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the ninth consecutive season when the Detroit Red Wings lost 4-1 at the New York Rangers. The Lightning took a two-point lead in the Atlantic Division over the Montreal Canadiens, who are tied in points with the Buffalo Sabres but have played one fewer game.

"For me to be sitting up here right now after Game 7 of this year when we had won just one, (the playoffs) seemed distant," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "But that's when the 'process over outcomes' came in and we didn't get the outcomes we wanted early on. This group is a special group. It's a great group in the sense of role definition. Everyone knows what they're doing. Everyone knows what they need to do for us to succeed."

Casey Mittelstadt scored, and Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves for the Bruins (43-26-8), who have lost two straight after a four-game winning streak. They have a six-point lead for the first wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference -- the Ottawa Senators hold the second wild card, tied in points with the Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets -- and are six points out of third in the Atlantic.

"I didn't like the first few minutes. We gave up two odd-man rushes. ... We played a pretty good game, we really did," Boston coach Marco Sturm said. "A couple of bad bounces. We didn't get the puck in on the second one and all of sudden a good team like that, they take advantage."

Raddysh gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead at 14:29 with a wrist shot from a sharp angle in the right face-off circle that got under Swayman's right shoulder.

"It was just a shot on net," Raddysh said. "I knew (Kucherov) was in the middle and I was just trying to throw it on net. Fortunate for that one to go in."

Kucherov added an empty-net goal at 18:27 for the 3-1 final.

"I thought we had a lot of positives for our group. Sometimes you don't get the results," Swayman said. "Our team shouldn't be hanging their heads. A lot of great things came out of tonight's game and that's what we should be focused on."

Mittelstadt gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 6:47 of the second period after Viktor Arvidsson won a puck battle along the right wall and found Mittelstadt open for a wrist shot from between the circles.

"We had a few chances, even in the first, but I also thought the power play needed to step up,” Sturm said of Boston going 0-for-4 with the man-advantage. “It didn't really give us a whole lot of grade-A chances. We were fine, though. We were still good enough today. But those little details, they matter, and those details have been hurting us for two games in a row."

D'Astous tied it 1-1 at 2:13 of the third. After his initial shot from the top of the slot was blocked, he buried his own rebound from a sharp angle on the left side.

'"Once we figured (their forecheck) out and started playing in the O-zone and bringing pucks to the net, we found a way," D'Astous said. "We had a couple of good chances in the second to start."

NOTES: D'Astous has eight points (two goals, six assists) over his past seven games. … Kucherov has 399 NHL goals. ... Lightning forward Brandon Hagel (undisclosed) missed a second straight game.