Bruins surge past Tampa for East lead
BOSTON — The Bruins appear to be quite ready for the playoffs.
And the Tampa Bay Lightning are slumping at the wrong time of the season.
The top two teams in the Eastern Conference slugged it out Thursday, and Boston prevailed, knocking Tampa Bay out of first place for the first time since October with a 4-2 win.
“This definitely had a playoff feel to it,” said Brand Marchand, whose empty-net goal with 56 seconds left sealed the win for the Bruins, who took over first place in the conference with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists, Tim Schaller and David Pastrnak scored goals 32 seconds apart in the final minute of the first period and Tuukka Rask made 26 saves for the Bruins, who have 107 points and lead Tampa Bay by a point.
At Newark, N.J., Sidney Crosby batted his own rebound
Penguins 4, Devils 3, OT—
out of the air and into the net 19 seconds into overtime, and Pittsburgh denied New Jersey a sweep of the four-game season series.
Kris Letang stole Taylor Hall’s pass in the opening seconds in the Pittsburgh zone and sent Crosby on a semi-break the other way. His initial shot hit the goalpost, but then the star center pulled his hands in and swatted the puck out of the air. At Nashville, Tenn., Ryan Ellis scored the go-ahead goal with 9:54 left, and Nashville beat San Jose to set a franchise record with 111 points this season.
At
Los Angeles, Jeff Carter completed a hat trick by scoring with 4:25 left, and the Kings beat Arizona.
At Chicago, emergency goaltender Scott Foster played the final 14 minutes after Chicago lost Anton Forsberg and Collin Delia to injuries, closing out the Blackhawks’ victory over Winnipeg. Foster’s last competitive action was 20 minutes in relief for the Broncos during his only game in the 200506
Predators 5, Sharks 3 — Kings 4, Coyotes 2 — Blackhawks 6, Jets 2 —
season.
At Calgary, Alberta, PierreLuc Dubois had his first career hat trick and Columbus earned its sixth straight road victory and 12th win in its past 13 games.
At Ottawa, Ontario, Jean-gabriel Pageau scored on a penalty shot in overtime to lift Ottawa over Florida.
At Buffalo, N.Y., Anthony Mantha scored his team-leading 24th goal, and Detroit snapped an 11game road losing streak.
At St. Paul, Minn., Matt Dumba scored on a power play and had two assists in Minnesota’s three-goal second period, and the Wild moved a step closer to a spot in the playoffs with a victory over fading Dallas.
At Vancouver, British Columbia, defenseman Derrick Pouliot snapped a 1-1 tie with his third goal of the season early in the third period, and Vancouver earned its third consecutive win.
Blue Jackets 5, Flames 1— Senators 3, Panthers 2, OT — Red Wings 6, Sabres 3 — Wild 5, Stars 2 — Canucks 2, Oilers 1 —