Rask helps Bruins hold off league-leading Lightning
BOSTON — Charlie McAvoy and Riley Nash scored first-period goals, Tuukaa Rask made 19 saves to snap his fourgame losing streak and the Boston Bruins hung on for a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.
Torey Krug also scored and Brad Marchand assisted on the first two goals for the Bruins, who opened a 3-0 lead to post their fifth win in six games. Boston improved to 13-3 in its last 16 at home against the Lightning.
Steven Stamkos and Andrej Sustr scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves. Tampa Bay, which entered the game with the NHL’s best record, lost for the third time in four games following a season-high five-game winning streak.
Criticized lately for his uneven play combined with recent solid performances by backup Anton Khudobin, Rask raised his record to just 4-8-2 this season. Khudobin is 7-0-2.
Rask flashed his pad to block Ryan Callahan’s tip from in close late in the game.
The Bruins came out strong in the opening period, firing 19 shots on goal en route to a 2-0 lead after one.
McAvoy snapped off a shot from the right circle that slipped through a crowd of players and past Vasilevskiy to make it 1-0 at 7:27. Originally, it was waved off for goaltender interference with Boston’s Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand at the edge of the crease, but Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy challenged the call and it was overturned.
Antoine Vermette scored twice and John Gibson stopped 37 shots to lead Anaheim to a road victory over St. Louis. Kevin Roy also scored for the Ducks, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held on to snap a four-game losing streak. Vermette snapped an 11-game scoreless drought with his first multigoal game since Nov. 25, 2015. Gibson, who was pulled after giving up four goals on 22 shots in a 7-3 loss at Chicago on Monday, improved to 8-9-1. Kyle Brodziak scored twice in the game’s final 3:48 for the Blues, who had won four of their previous five. Brodziak’s goal with 16.7 seconds left brought the Blues within one.
Carey Price made 25 saves to lead Montreal to a home victory over Ottawa for their third straight win. Jonathan Drouin and Phillip Danault scored in the second period for Montreal. Price improved to 3-0-0 while allowing just two goals on 100 shots since he returned last week after missing 10 games with a lower body injury. Mark Stone scored his 14th goal for Ottawa. Nathan MacKinnon scored his eighth goal of the season in overtime to lift Colorado over Winnipeg at home.