twice, tying him for the NHL lead with 45 goals, and Paul Szczechura
also had a pair of goals to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-3
victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
Antero Niittymaki stopped 47 shots for
the 500th victory in Tampa Bay franchise history. The Lightning have
won two straight since losing five straight — and 12 of 14 — to fall to
the brink of elimination in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Nittymaki stopped 19 shots in the
third period as Boston tried furiously but belatedly to come back from a
three-goal deficit.
Tuukka Rask made 13 saves for Boston,
which dropped to 15-15-6 at home, winning just two of its last 14 home
games. Since the Winter Classic at Fenway Park, the Bruins had not
scored three regulation goals at home before Thursday.
Stamkos scored just 49 seconds into
the game and then added another with 26 seconds remaining in the second
period to make it 4-2 and give him 45 for the season. That ties
Washington's Alexander Ovechkin and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby for the
NHL lead.
The Bruins pulled Rask on a power play
in the final minute for a 6-on-4 advantage but couldn't get off a shot.
Szczechura scored his fourth of the
season in the second period and his fifth in the third. Martin St. Louis
also scored for the Lightning, who opened the night in 12th place but
closed within six points of eighth-place Boston with eight games left.
Zdeno Chara, Johnny Boychuk and Mark
Recchi scored for Boston, which maintained a three-point lead over
ninth-place Atlanta, a 2-1 overtime loser to Toronto on Thursday night.
It was Chara's first goal in 16 games, and it cut the deficit to 2-1
with 27 seconds left in the first period
But the Lightning capitalized on
another turnover in the Boston end when Szczechura got the puck between
the circles and put it past Rask to make it 3-1 at the 6:50 mark of the
second. Boychuk made it a one-goal game midway through the second, but
Stamkos scored on a slap shot to extend the lead again.
David Krejci had a pair of assists
for the Bruins, giving him four two-point performances in the last eight
games and 101 assists in his career.
Shawn Thornton had a questionable hit
against Kurtis Foster in the second period. Foster, who went face-first
into the glass, was looked at by the trainer, but he skated off on his
own. No penalty was called.
Thursday was the first day of the
NHL's new rule banning blindside hits to the head, so Thornton could be
sanctioned by the league.
Chara left 2 minutes into the third
period when he was hit by St. Louis' slap shot in the right hand. He left
and went to the bench, where he sat with an icepack on his hand before
returning with 16:32 left.
Notes
Boston's Vladimir Sobotka
missed the game with a head injury. … Lightning defenseman David Hale
left the game in the second period with an undisclosed injury and did
not return. … The Bruins have no power-play goals in their last eight
games.
