NHL-leading Bruins grab 2-1 victory at Tampa Bay

Brad Marchand and the NHL-leading Boston Bruins took a big stride to- ward winning the Atlan- tic Division with a 2-1 victory against the Lightning at Tampa Bay on Tuesday.

Marchand and Jake DeBrusk scored for the Bruins, who opened a nine-point cushion over second-place Tampa Bay in the division standings with 15 games remaining in the regular season.

Tukka Rask made 20 saves for Boston, which has won three straight and eight of 10.

Mitchell Stephens scored for Tampa Bay, which has lost five of the past six in regulation. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots. BLUES 3, RANGERS 1 >> Brayden Schenn scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, and Jordan Binnington made 25 saves as St. Louis won its eighth straight game with a victory at New York.

Schenn scored for the fifth consecutive game when his wraparound banked off the skate of goalie Alexandar Georgiev at 9:56. Jaden Schwartz and defenseman Colton Parayko had assists on Schenn’s 25th of the season.

Schwartz sealed it with an empty-net goal, his 21st, at 19:54 as the Rangers lost their third straight.

Binnington won his sixth in a row for the Stanley Cup champion Blues (40-17-10), who have the best record in the Western Conference and previously had winning streaks of seven and eight games this season. PENGUINS 7, SENATORS 1 >> Sidney Crosby scored and collected his 800th career assist as Pittsburgh ended a six-game losing streak with a victory over visiting Ottawa.

Crosby became the 32nd player in NHL history to reach the 800-assist plateau when he earned the secondary assist on Jason Zucker’s goal 36 seconds into the third period that put the Penguins up 5-1. The 32-year-old Crosby needed just 980 games to get to 800, the sixth-fastest ever. CANADIENS 6, ISLANDERS 2 >> Brendan Gallagher had a goal and an assist in Montreal’s three-goal first period, and the Canadiens went on to win at New York.

Joel Armia also had a goal and an assist, and Jeff Petry, Charles Hudon, Paul Byron and Jordan Weal also scored for the Canadiens, and Phillip Danault had two assists. Carey Price stopped 20 shots to improve to 146-4 against the Islanders. WILD 3, PREDATORS 1 >> Kevin Fiala scored for the fifth straight game for host Minnesota, this time against his former team, and the Wild beat Nashville to pass the Predators in the Western Conference playoff race. BLUE JACKETS’ BJORKSTRAND HAS ANKLE SURGERY >> Columbus right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand underwent successful surgery to repair his injured ankle. Bjorkstrand is expected to be sidelined eight to 10 weeks, the team announced.

He suffered a sprain and hairline fracture of his ankle when he slid into the boards on Feb. 20 against the Philadelphia Flyers.