Vasilevskiy, Lightning hold off Bruins, hand them 6th straight loss

TAMPA -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 11 of his 27 saves in the third period to help the Tampa Bay Lightning hold off the Boston Bruins 4-1 at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Brandon Hagel had a goal and an assist, and Ryan McDonagh and Nikita Kucherov each had two assists for the Lightning (22-25-2), who have won two straight. McDonagh passed 400 NHL points, and Brayden Point scored to reach 600 NHL points.

"These were two tough games to win," said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper, whose team defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 on Tuesday on a goal by Point with 52 seconds left in the third. "One game we pulled out with 50 seconds or whatever it was and tonight the game was in the balance until the very end when we got the empty-netter. You have to play so consistently in this league to try to get into the playoffs and you can't let the ups and downs affect you."

Mason Lohrei scored for the Bruins (20-19-5), who lost their sixth straight (0-5-1). Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves.

"We're shooting ourselves in the foot time and time again," Boston forward Morgan Geekie said. "I feel like lots of these mistakes are kind of self-appointed ... but, yeah, we've got to figure it out in this room and we've got guys that can do that. I believe in each and every one of the guys in this room."

Anthony Cirelli gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal at 14:07 of the second period. McDonagh sent the puck down the ice to a streaking Hagel, whose shot from the slot went off the end boards before Cirelli scored on the rebound from the left face-off circle.

Over the past eight games, the Lightning are 17-for-17 on penalty kill with four short-handed goals.

"If we have a chance to go and create an opportunity for a goal or something, we're going to go," Cirelli said. "But in saying that, [the priority] first and foremost is to kill the penalty off and make sure we're not giving anything up."

The assist was McDonagh’s 400th point.

"It obviously feels good," McDonagh said. “Been playing with a lot of great teams over the years, a lot of great players. And it was funny, ‘Pointer’ said maybe a month and a half ago, ‘Oh yeah, you're [a few away from] 400. But I think I sat there two away for about a month, but it feels good."

Michael Eyssimont extended the lead to 2-0 at 19:10 when he took a pass near boards from Nick Paul and scored from the left circle to the short side.

Lohrei cut it to 2-1 at 2:05 of the third. He received a pass above the left circle and skated to the left hash marks before scoring on a wrist shot with bodies in front of Vasilevskiy.

"This is what we preached, go low to high and spread the ice, and then our forwards were doing a great job at the net," Lohrei said. "That's the only reason I scored, because we got bodies there."

Boston interim coach Joe Sacco said, "We were just getting to the net, pucks were getting to the net, we had bodies there, we had two on the inside and created some havoc. We just need more of that. I'd like to see our group play with that desperation and that passion the whole 60."

Hagel made it 3-1 with an empty-net goal at 18:28, and Point scored on the power play at 19:24 for his 25th of the season and the 4-1 final.

"It's really cool," Point said of getting to 600 points. "Obviously, very fortunate to play on great teams and with great players, but, yeah, it's really cool."

NOTES: Point has 289 goals and 311 assists in 615 games. ... McDonagh has 401 points (77 goals, 324 assists) in 967 games. ... The Lightning are 17-1-1 this season when leading after the second period. ... Hagel had a game-high 16 shot attempts (nine on goal). ... Lohrei's goal was the first by a Boston defenseman since Dec. 3, when Nikita Zadorov scored against the Detroit Red Wings. ... The Bruins were 0-for-1 on the power play and have gone eight games without scoring a power-play goal (0-for-13).