The Backcheck: Two Bolts hit career marks to beat Bruins

Despite an 0-3-0 road trip to California last week, the Tampa Bay Lightning remained confident in their structure and play when they returned to Tampa this week.

That resilience now has the Lightning on a two-game win streak, one that began with Tuesday's home win over the Carolina Hurricanes and followed with a 4-1 win on Thursday at AMALIE Arena against the Boston Bruins.

"We knew we were at home here in front of our fans and we had to come up with two really good efforts," Tampa Bay forward Anthony Cirelli said. "We need the points and stuff obviously, but just our overall game I thought was a lot better these two games just in the way we were playing, the way we were in our structure. It was almost kind of that backs against the wall kind of mentality after losing four in a row.”

The Lightning improved to 22-15-2 with Thursday’s win, including 13-6-1 on home ice.

Tampa Bay's first goal on Thursday came with the home team quite literally pinned in their own zone—defenseman Ryan McDonagh halted a Boston Bruins power play zone entry, and his clearance turned into a shorthanded rush for Brandon Hagel with 5:53 to play in the second period.

Hagel's initial chance was stopped, but the rebound slipped to the left circle and Cirelli, who wired his third shorthanded goal of the season into the Boston net.

“He’s (Hagel) got so much speed and he’s so tenacious on the puck,” forward Brayden Point said of the play. “He never quits on it and obviously a big reason why that puck went in. But Tony, too. Tony never quit on the puck and followed it up and made a great shot.”

McDonagh earned the secondary assist on the play, his 400th career NHL point. McDonagh had two assists on Thursday night to co-lead the Lightning in scoring.

"It was funny. Pointer said maybe a month and a half ago, ‘Oh, you’re right at 400, two away.’ But I think I sat there two away for about a month, but it feels good,” McDonagh said postgame. “I mean, it's a credit to a lot of great players that I’ve played with over the years.”

Tampa Bay extended its lead to 2-0 in the final minute of the second period when forward Mikey Eyssimont’s shot beat Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman low blocker.

Boston got its first goal in the opening minutes of the third period, as defenseman Mason Lohrei’s shot made it 2-1 2:05 into the final frame.

Hagel scored an empty-net goal with 1:32 left in the game for a 3-1 advantage, but Tampa Bay wasn’t finished checking off career marks.

Point scored on the power play with 36 seconds left in regulation, his 25th goal of the season and 600th career NHL point to round out the 4-1 victory. Point snuck the puck through Swayman in the low slot after a feed from Nikita Kucherov.

He became the third-fastest player in team history to reach 600 points, doing so in his 615th game. Only Kucherov (557 games) and Steven Stamkos (595) hit 600 points in fewer games.

“It’s really cool,” Point said. “Obviously very fortunate to play on great teams and with great players, but yeah, it’s really cool.”

The Lightning have a back-to-back on the road this weekend, one that begins on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils and continues Sunday in Pittsburgh against the Penguins.

Though those games are outside the Atlantic Division, the Lightning acknowledged that Thursday night was about getting standings points after a slow start inside the Atlantic. It was also about sticking to the structure that has been mostly stable despite a recent skid.

"You have to play so consistently in this league to try and get into the playoffs, and you can't let the ups and the downs affect you,” coach Jon Cooper said. “And as I said, it was easy to be down after we lost those games in the west coast, but I thought our process was pretty darn good.”

Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for his 18th win of the season. Kucherov finished with two assists, and Hagel had a goal and an assist in Thursday’s win.

Ben’s Three Stars:

• Ryan McDonagh (Two assists)

• Brandon Hagel (Goal, assist)

• Anthony Cirelli (SHG)