Bruins sneak past Lightning, win third straight

TAMPA -- Zdeno Chara and Frank Vatrano scored third-period goals to lift the Boston Bruins to a 4-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.
Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci also scored for the Bruins (26-21-6). Tuukka Rask made 18 saves.
Alex Killorn had two goals and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning (22-23-6), who are eight points behind the Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division. Ben Bishop made 31 saves.
Chara gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead at 7:51 of the third period with a one-timer from above the right circle that beat Bishop to the far post.

WATCH: All Bruins vs. Lightning highlights
Vatrano made it 4-2 with a power-play goal at 12:23.
"To be honest I felt like our will got better in the second and third," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Our power play has been good lately. We're still in the middle of the pack because of our start but our special teams played a big role in this win."
Point made it 4-3 at 17:56 when he redirected a high slap shot from Victor Hedman under the glove of Rask.
"We just lose our game plan when we hit a bump," Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman said. "There's been too much of that happening."
Killorn's first goal came at 8:41 of the second period when he beat Rask with a wrist shot above the left circle to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.

Bergeron tied the game 1-1 at 18:08 of the second during 4-on-4 action when he redirected a shot from Adam McQuaid that got past Bishop through the five-hole.
Boston took a 2-1 lead with 0.9 seconds remaining in the period when Krejci beat Bishop with a wrist shot high on the glove side.
"That goal was huge," Bergeron said. "It definitely gave us the energy that we want and we came in the dressing room feeling good about ourselves and what we did in that period."
Killorn tied the game 2-2 at 4:46 of the third period with his 15th goal off a pass from Hedman that hit McQuaid's skate and ended up on Killorn's stick with a clear look from close range.
"I'm disappointed," Killorn said. "It's tough when you go up 1-0 and give up those two goals. We showed a little fight at the end but it wasn't good enough."
Hedman had three assists to bring his total to 34 this season.

Goal of the game

Vatrano's game-winner came 14 seconds into the power play when he camped out in the left circle and got a one-timer past Bishop.

Save of the game

Lightning defenseman Jason Garrison thought he had a goal after a slap shot trickled through Rask's pad but Bruins defenseman Colin Miller made a goal-saving swipe to clear the puck off the goal line.

Unsung performance of the game

Bruins forward Brad Marchand had two assists and was plus-1 in 19:39 of ice time on 29 shifts. He has 30 assists and 51 points this season.

Highlight of the game

Krejci's buzzer-beating goal in the second period appeared to catch the Lightning by surprise. Tampa Bay had three defenders in the area but none of them put a body on Krejci, who calmly fired a wrist shot past Bishop to send the Bruins in the locker room with a lead and the momentum.

They said it

"Well, it's upsetting in the second that we have a 1-0 lead and then all of a sudden one of our guys gets hit from behind. They score two goals like that without us even answering. That's just unacceptable. We've got to stick up for each other, and that just can't happen." -- Lightning forward Tyler Johnson
"We've got to win. We've got to win games. We want to win every game, but it's a tough league. There's a team on the other end too, but for us it's about playing through our structure and playing to the way that makes us successful. Today was a step in the right direction." -- Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman

Need to know

Nikita Kucherov played the final 3:27 of the game for the Lightning. … Point returned to the lineup after missing 14 games with a fractured hand. … All three wins for the Bruins on their current streak have been by a score of 4-3.

What's next

Bruins: At the Washington Capitals on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SNE, SNO, TVA Sports, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Ottawa Senators on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, RDS2, TSN5, NHL.TV)