Bruins clinch playoffs, Avalanche down ’Hawks

Tuukka Rask continued his late-season surge, making 28 saves for his second shutout in four starts in leading the Boston Bruins to a sixth straight win with a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.

The win enabled the Bruins to clinch a playoff berth with two games remaining.

David Pastrnak scored his 33rd and 34th goals of the season, Drew Stafford netted his first in 12 games and Zdeno Chara scored a power-play goal. David Krejci had two assists.

Brad Marchand was ejected in the first period for spearing Jake Dotchin in the groin. Marchand, a 39-goal scorer, received a major and game misconduct and faces league discipline that could result in his seventh suspension.

Elsewhere around the NHL, Erik Johnson scored at 1:57 of overtime and the Colorado Avalanche rallied to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3.

Matt Duchene had a goal and two assists, and Gabriel Landeskog and Mikhail Grigorenko also scored for the Avalanche.

Marcus Kruger had a goal and an assist and Artemi Panarin and Ryan Hartman scored for the Blackhawks.

Also, Philip Grubauer stopped 27 shots and lost his bid for his fourth shutout of the season in the final two minutes as the Washington Capitals defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1.

Lars Eller, Kevin Shattenkirk, Nate Schmidt and Tom Wilson scored for the Capitals. Brett Connolly added two assists for Washington.

Mitch Marner scored the Maple Leafs’ goal on a power-play at 18:52 of the third period. It was his 19th goal of the season.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in second place in the Metropolitan Division, moved three points ahead of third-place Columbus with a 4-1 conquest of the Blues Jackets.

The Penguins, in their final home game of the regular season, got goals from Carter Rowney, Patric Hornqvist, Brian Dumoulin and Jake Guentzel, while Brandon Dubinsky scored the Blue Jackets' lone goal..