 has a chance to surpass the NHL record of 62 wins, set by the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings. The only other franchise to win at least 59 was the Montreal Canadiens, who did it in 1976-77 (60 wins) and 1977-78 (59). Both of those Montreal teams went on to win the Stanley Cup. Anthony Cirelli scored the winning goal, his 19th of the season, with 52.4 seconds left, as Tampa Bay won when trailing after the second period for the ninth time this season. Stamkos scored twice and has 41 goals, reaching the 40-goal mark for the fifth time in his career and first time since 2014-15. He added two assists and has 93 points, becoming the third Tampa Bay player to reach 90 points alongside Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. The Lightning are the first team since the Ottawa Senators and Atlanta Thrashers in 2005-06 to have three players get to 90 points in the same season. Kucherov scored his 38th goal to record his 121st point of the year, the second-most by a Russian player in NHL history behind Alex Mogilny, who had 127 in 1992-93. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 13 shots for Tampa Bay. Brad Marchand scored twice while Brandon Carlo and Charlie Coyle also scored for Boston. Tuukka Rask finished with 23 saves. The Lightning led 2-1 after the first period on a pair of one-timers off the stick of Stamkos from the left circle. Coyle, Carlo and Marchand all scored in a span of 5:50 as Boston turned the game around in the second period, taking advantage of two turnovers to grab a two-goal advantage. Hedman followed up a breakaway attempt by Stamkos and tucked the rebound into the net to make it 4-3 at 5:36 of the third period. The Lightning tied the game with 6:45 remaining after Vasilevskiy made a toe-save on David Pastrnak and Stamkos sent Kucherov up ice for a 2-on-1 chance that Kucherov converted with a shot to the top far post. NOTES: Lightning D Dan Girardi missed his ninth consecutive game with a lower-body injury, and coach Jon Cooper said Girardi is unlikely to return before the playoffs. ... Tampa Bay D Anton Stralman (lower body) participated in Monday's morning skate and could return by the weekend. ... Boston LW Marcus Johansson (lung contusion) missed his 10th consecutive game, but coach Bruce Cassidy said a return on Wednesday is likely. ... Bruins D John Moore left in the first period after he fell awkwardly into the boards and did not return. ... Tampa Bay LW Ondrej Palat left in the first period and did not return after suffering an undisclosed upper-body injury. ... Lightning RW Ryan Callahan recorded his 200th career assist. UP NEXTLightning: Host the Washington Capitals on Saturday. Bruins: Host the New York Rangers on Wednesday.---More NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Time: 7:30 PM EDT Venue: Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL, 33602 / The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning meet for the third time this season on Monday night, and while very little is at stake in terms of Stanley Cup Playoffs positioning for the top two teams in the Eastern Conference, the intensity level should be through the roof. In fact, it will probably feel like a playoff game. After a thoroughly convincing 7-3 win over the Florida Panthers in South Florida on Saturday night, the Bruins (46-20-9) travel to the Sunshine State's west coast for the second time to face Tampa Bay at Amalie Arena at 7:30 p.m. ET. Boston has split two of the four games in the season series against its Atlantic Division rival. The Bruins fell 3-2 on Dec. 6 in Tampa but rebounded with an impressive 4-1 victory in Boston on Feb. 28. The home win featured the kind of hype both clubs will likely encounter if they meet up in a conference semifinal. The likelihood of that is strong considering the quarterfinal matchups: Boston would face the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have been beaten three times in four games by the Bruins. Tampa Bay would face the No. 2 wild card, currently held by the Montreal Canadiens. When the two teams met in Boston on the last night of last month, the success of both led to an NHL record as the encounter marked the first time in league history two clubs with points in at least 14 consecutive games faced each other. The two teams were a combined 22-0-4 entering the contest. With the 4-1 victory over the Lightning, Boston improved to 11-0-2 in the year's shortest month -- the first time the club went without a regulation loss in a month since November of 2011. Boston relentlessly went after Florida rookie goalie Sam Montembeault on Saturday, scoring six times on the 22-year-old netminder, and the win secured a playoff spot for the Bruins." Clinching playoffs in the new (NHL), it's not easy," said Zdeno Chara, whose second-period tally made him the 22nd NHL defenseman to score 200 goals. "You can see that every year teams are really battling hard for every point to get into the playoffs, and it's a grind." Even after dropping a tough 4-3 decision to the Blues in St. Louis on Saturday night, the Lightning (58-14-54) remain the standard by which the NHL elite is measured this season. Winners of this season's Presidents' Cup as the league's top club, Tampa Bay had its seven-game winning streak broken in St. Louis and will finish the season's remaining six contests by playing five playoff clubs. Brayden Point scored his team-leading 40th goal in St. Louis, and defenseman Victor Hedman had high praise for the 23-year-old center." I was there when (Steven Stamkos) scored 50 his second year," Hedman said. "It's special. Pointer's just so much more than just a goal scorer and a playmaker. He's such a good player both ends of the ice and so valuable to our team." Forward Yanni Gourde will miss his second consecutive game and finish his two-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Carolina Hurricanes Jordan Staal on Thursday.--Field Level Media
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