BOSTON (AP) — Trent Frederic scored two goals, David Pastrnak added his team-leading 24th and the Boston Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-3 on Saturday night.
Charlie McAvoy, Morgan Geekie, Charlie Coyle and Jake DeBrusk also scored for Boston, which has won five of its last six games. Hampus Lindholm and Matt Poitras each had two assists, and Linus Ullmark made 23 saves.
The loss spoiled Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper’s chance to become the 29th coach to reach 500 NHL wins for at least one game.
Brayden Point scored two goals and Nikita Kucherov had a goal with two assists for the Lightning, who have dropped four of six. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 shots.
Seconds after Frederic’s hard check sent Emil Martinsen Lilleberg into the side boards and brought a loud roar from the TD Garden crowd, McAvoy’s goal pushed Boston ahead 2-1 with 5:04 left in the first when his wrister from the right point deflected off Point’s stick and sailed over Vasilevskiy.
Frederic added his second early into the second period, scoring off his own rebound when it caromed in off the back of Vasilevskiy’s right pad to make it 3-1.
Tampa Bay sliced it to 3-2 on Kuchreov’s hustle goal before Pavel Zacha sent Pastrnak in on a semi-breakaway. The Bruins’ star forward fired a wrister past Vasilevskiy’s glove to restore the two-goal lead, then pumped his left fist as he was gliding on one knee celebrating along the boards.
Point’s second cut the Lightning’s deficit to one again late in the second when he scored off a cross-ice feed from Kucherov, but Geekie made it 5-3 at 1:35 of the third.
DeBrusk’s empty-net short-handed score sealed it with 3:26 to play, and Coyle scored his 14th just 40 seconds later.
Copper was whistled for a misconduct when he was screaming at the referees after Frederic’s second goal.
UP NEXT
Lightning: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.
Bruins: At the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
