Results - Mon, Mar 18, 2014

Minnesota @ Boston 1-4 - With a three-game road trip looming, the Boston Bruins made sure to give their home fans another winning-streak-extending performance Monday night. The Bruins extended their streak to nine games with points from eight different players and 33 saves from goaltender Tuukka Rask in a 4-1 victory against the Minnesota Wild at TD Garden. Boston (46-17-5) went 3-0 on its homestand and is on its longest winning streak since it won 10 in a row in November 2011. The Bruins had never beaten the Wild at home in six prior meetings. Rask has won six in a row and the Bruins have allowed one or no goals six times during the streak. The Bruins have averaged four goals per game during the impressive run. Jarome Iginla scored twice for the Bruins; Loui Eriksson and Reilly Smith added one goal apiece. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 25 of 28 shots and Jason Pominville scored for the Wild (35-23-10), who started a three-game road trip with their second regulation loss in their past 12 games (6-2-4). After a scoreless first period, the offense picked up in the second beginning with a fluky goal by Iginla at 3:52. The Bruins forward took a shot on the rush that deflected off Minnesota defenseman Jonas Brodin and then dropped through Kuemper's five-hole. Eriksson doubled the Bruins' lead after some yeoman's work by linemate Carl Soderberg, who stole the puck at the Minnesota blue line and circled the net before making a backhand pass across the slot to Eriksson. The goal gave Boston a 2-0 lead with 11:55 elapsed. Minnesota pulled within one at 18:34. Ryan Suter's pass out of the Wild zone sprung Pominville with Boston defenseman Andrej Meszaros hot on his trail. Pominville broke his stick on his slap shot from the top of the right circle and the puck eluded Rask. Smith's first goal in 16 games put Boston ahead 3-1 at 7:50 of the third period. The Bruins wing banged in a rebound of a Patrice Bergeron shot from the right side of the slot. Iginla sealed the game with an empty-net goal at 18:55.
Vancouver @ Tampa Bay 3-4 - The Lightning opened up a three-goal advantage after two periods and then barely held on for a 4-3 win against the Canucks at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Monday night. Ondrej Palat and Steven Stamkos each had a goal and an assist, Ben Bishop stopped 25 shots and the Lightning finished a six-game stretch at home with three consecutive wins and eight of a possible 12 points. The win propelled the Lightning (37-25-7) into second place in the Atlantic Division. Tampa Bay and the Montreal Canadiens each have 81 points, one more than the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the Lightning have a game in hand on each. Alexandre Burrows scored twice and assisted on the other Vancouver goal. Goaltender Eddie Lack made 26 saves. Vancouver had the first eight shots in the third period and produced some quality scoring chances, including a breakaway attempt by Nicklas Jensen that Bishop denied at 3:42. But the barrage of shots finally paid off when Tom Pyatt was penalized for goaltender interference and the Canucks connected on the power play at 5:44 to cut the margin to 3-1. Burrows flipped a rebound of Kevin Bieksa's shot from the blue line past Bishop for his fourth goal of the season. Pyatt made amends just over three minutes later when his bad-angled shot beat Lack from the short side, restoring the Lightning's three-goal lead. It was Pyatt's third goal of the season. The Canucks (31-30-10) cut the deficit back to two with Burrows' second goal of the game at 11:44 and then added a shorthanded goal by Jannik Hansen, his 11th of the season, at 15:16. Vancouver's third-period rally concerned Stamkos. He was clear that there is some work to be done before Tampa Bay visits Toronto on Wednesday. Tampa Bay scored twice in the second period to extend its lead to 3-0. After Bieksa fanned on a 2-on-1 chance, the Lightning turned the tables and Palat finished a 2-on-1 break the other way when he deflected Matt Carle's feed off Vancouver defenseman Ryan Stanton and past Lack at 6:54 while the teams skated 4-on-4. Stanton was victimized again in similar circumstances late in the period. Bishop made a stellar stop on Zack Kassian and the Lightning took off in the other direction. This time, Valtteri Filppula was the beneficiary. His centering pass hit Stanton's skate and found its way past Lack for Filppula's 22nd goal of the season at 19:51. The first period played out evenly until Kassian was called for tripping. On the ensuing power play, the Canucks left Stamkos alone to the right of their net and when the puck bounced his way, he didn't miss. Lack had no chance on Stamkos' 16th goal of the season at 17:56. With an assist, Palat extended his scoring streak to five games; his goal in the second period gave him eight points over that stretch (three goals, five assists). Vancouver defenseman Christopher Tanev was injured in the opening period and did not return.