BOSTON — Tuukka Rask stopped 27 shots for his seventh shutout of the season, and Brad Marchand scored his career-high 38th goal and added an assist to lead the Bruins to a 2-0 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
The victory allowed the Bruins to keep pace in the wild scramble for an Eastern Conference playoff berth.
The Bruins entered the game a point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division, and they remained three points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second wild card by beating Dallas.
Boston won its third straight game — the last two coming in front of strong efforts by Rask.
The goaltender, criticized by interim coach Bruce Cassidy for his play against Tampa Bay last Thursday, missed Saturday night’s win in Brooklyn against the Islanders with a lower body injury. He took a shutout into the third period and gave up one goal Tuesday but Thursday night finished off his 37th career shutout — his first shutout since Feb. 12.
Marchand scored with 4:46 remaining in the first period, and Torey Krug added a power-play goal 1:18 into the second period. Marchand snapped his career high in goals set last year. He has 38 points in the past 27 games.
Antti Niemi made 22 saves in his first start in the last eight games, but the Stars, already eliminated from the West race, saw their three-game TD Garden winning streak stopped.
With 8:52 left in the game, Boston’s Kevan Miller sent Curtis McKenzie to the dressing room with a high stick that drew blood. The Stars had a four-minute power play but managed just two shots on Rask.
NOTES: D Julius Honka, recalled from the minors Wednesday, played for Dallas. … Bruins C Patrice Bergeron, who recorded 13 faceoff wins, leads the NHL with 1,023. … Boston C David Krejci played in his 700th NHL game and RW Jimmy Hayes his 300th. … The Stars are the only NHL franchise the Bruins haven’t beaten in overtime. … Bruins RW Frank Vatrano, who has gone 14 games without a goal, was out with an upper body injury. … LW Brad Marchand’s 191st career goal moved him past Bill Cowley into 19th place on Boston’s all-time list. … RW Tyler Seguin played in his 300th game with the Stars since his trade from Boston. … The Stars play Game 4 of a five-game trip at Carolina on Saturday, while the Bruins host the Florida Panthers on Saturday and then play their final road game Sunday at Chicago.
Lightning rally past Red Wings
TAMPA, Florida — The Tampa Bay Lightning rallied for their fourth straight come-from-behind victory, getting two power-play goals at the end of the second period on the way to a 5-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night at Amalie Arena.
Tampa Bay (38-29-9) kept pace in a tight Eastern Conference wild-card race and picked up some distance on the Islanders, who went into the night a point behind Tampa Bay but lost to the Flyers. The Lightning completed a five-game sweep of the Red Wings (31-34-12) this season, a first in their franchise history, and have beaten Detroit in 11 of the last 12 meetings. While Detroit will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1990, the Lightning are still very much alive with six games remaining, thanks to another comeback.
Two power-play goals in the final five minutes of the second period were the difference in the game, with goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy getting 29 saves for the win. The Lightning won despite playing a man down the entire game, with leading scorer Nikita Kucherov a late scratch due to illness and four other key players — centers Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson and Cedric Paquette and defenseman Jason Garrison — out with injuries.
Rookie Yanni Gourde, who had the game-winner in overtime in Monday’s wild win against Chicago, added a goal in the third period, his third this season, and Detroit answered with a power-play goal from defenseman Mike Green to cut the lead to 5-3 with 11:42 to play.
Tampa Bay fell behind early, then used a strong second period to pull away to a 4-2 lead entering the final period, thanks to two late power-play goals.
Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser, who had scored just his fourth goal of the season with 7:14 left to tie the score at 2, made two costly mistakes that led to Lightning goals on the power play.
On the first, Tampa Bay’s Alex Killorn fired a shot that was stopped by Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek, but as DeKeyser went to clear the loose puck, he mishandled it and sent it straight into the net for a 3-2 Lightning lead with 3:47 left. That was credited as Killorn’s 18th goal of the season.
DeKeyser was called for cross-checking with 2:18 left in the second and the Lightning again converted the power play. Jonathan Drouin stick-handled through the Red Wings’ penalty-kill unit and fired a shot past Mrazek for his 21st goal of the season and a 4-2 lead with 1:56 to play.
Detroit jumped out to the early lead in a physical first period.
Frans Nielsen scored his 15th goal of the season with 15:38 left. Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman failed to clear a puck behind the net, and Darren Helm fired a quick pass to Nielsen in front of the net to beat Vasilevskiy for the 1-0 lead.
That lead stood until nearly the final minute of the first, when J.T. Brown — who had already served five minutes for fighting — fired a shot between Mrazek and the right post for a 1-1 tie, just his third goal of the season.
Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr got his third goal of the season for a 2-1 lead early in the second as Ondrej Palat’s shot went off his skate and into the net.
That lead didn’t last long, but the Lightning got the last two goals of the second.
Kucherov leads the Lightning with 38 goals.
NOTES: Detroit RW Anthony Mantha left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return. … Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman had the assist on Jonathan Drouin’s goal late in the second period, and with that, set a Lightning record for points in a season by a defenseman with 66 this season. The record had been 65 by Roman Hamrlik in 1995-96. He has 15 goals and 51 assists on the season. … Detroit played without C Luke Glendening, who missed his second straight game with a foot/ankle injury. C Ben Street was a healthy scratch. … Tampa Bay recalled RW Joel Vermin from Syracuse, and he played nine shifts to help the short-handed Lightning front line.