Bruins score first three, hang on to defeat Lightning

BOSTON -- Tuukka Rask made 19 saves to end a personal four-game losing streak for the Boston Bruins in a 3-2 win against the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden on Wednesday.
Charlie McAvoy, Riley Nash and Torey Krug scored for the Bruins (11-8-4), who won for the fifth time in six games. Brad Marchand had two assists in his return after missing six games with an undisclosed injury.

Rask had not won a game since Nov. 6 against the Minnesota Wild.
WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Bruins highlights]
"Oh, it's great. It's awesome," Rask said. "Yeah, I know, needed that one."
The Lightning were outshot 36-21 but rallied from down 3-0 to get within one on goals by Andrej Sustr and Steven Stamkos. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves for Tampa Bay (17-6-2), which has lost three of its past four games.
"You know if we had that same mindset that we had in the third to start the game, then it's probably a different result," Stamkos said. "But we just looked like a team that was a step behind and we dug ourselves too big a hole."
McAvoy gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead when he beat Vasilevskiy from the top of the right face-off circle at 7:27 of the first period. The goal initially was waved off for goaltender interference by Marchand, but Boston coach Bruce Cassidy challenged, and the call on the ice was overturned after video review.
Nash extended the Boston lead to 2-0 at 17:13 with a wrist shot from the high slot on a 2-on-2 with Danton Heinen after a long clearing pass by Marchand.

The Bruins outshot the Lightning 19-5 in the first.
Tampa Bay shuffled its forward lines for the second period, but that didn't stop Boston from extending its lead to 3-0 when Krug scored on a one-timer from below the right dot at 5:59.
Sustr scored his first goal of the season with a wrist shot through traffic at 10:53 to cut the Bruins lead to 3-1.
Although Boston outshot Tampa Bay 13-7 in the second period, the Lightning had a couple of quality chances to get closer.
Rask stopped Tyler Johnson's shot with his mask with 1:29 remaining, and then he pushed off right to left to stop Nikita Kucherov's wrist shot from the top of the right circle on a 3-on-2 with 31.2 seconds remaining.
"We talk about the goaltender needing to make saves and then the team playing well in front of him, and that's where it got away from us," Cassidy said referring to Rask's losing streak. "So that's where he helped himself big time tonight. That's what we need."
Stamkos scored on the power play from the bottom of the left circle to make it 3-2 at 2:10 of the third period, one-timing a pass from Kucherov from the right circle.
Tampa Bay outshot Boston 9-4 in the third period.

#

Goal of the game

Krug's one-timer 5:59 into the second period.

Save of the game

Rask stopping Ryan Callahan's deflection with 2:53 remaining in the third period.

Highlight of the game

Rask's save on Kucherov with 31.2 seconds remaining in the second period.

They said it

"You have to learn from this experience. To go on a four-game road trip and get two points out of it ... that's not what we had planned and actually probably never thought that would happen."-- Lightning coach Jon Cooper
"Oh man, he was awesome. We believe in him so much. You ask any guy on this team, we believe in Tuukka." -- Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy on goalie Tuukka Rask

Need to know

Stamkos has scored in five straight games in Boston ... Lightning forward JT Brown returned after missing three games because of an undisclosed injury. ... Bruins forward David Backes returned after missing 12 games following Nov. 2 surgery to remove part of his colon because of diverticulitis. He initially was expected to be out eight weeks but made it back in less than four. ... Bruins center David Krejci missed the game because of a reoccurrence of an upper-body injury that caused him to miss 11 games earlier this season.

What's next

Lightning: Host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SUN, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)
Bruins: At the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; SN, NBCSP, NESN, NHL.TV)