TAMPA, Fla. — Brett Connolly scored the go-ahead goal for the Boston Bruins in a 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.
Connolly gave Boston (6-3-1) its fifth straight road win with a wrist shot that went above the stick of Lightning goalie and former UMaine standout Ben Bishop to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 5:54 in the third period.
Bruins center Brad Marchand added an empty-net goal with 1:10 remaining in the game. He also had the assist on Connolly’s goal.
Tampa Bay (5-5-2) took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal from forward Nikita Kucherov, who scored his third goal of the season. Kucherov came in late to make give the Lightning a 3-on-2 advantage and sent a snap shot high on Bruins goalie Jonas Gustavsson.
Boston tied the game at 1-1 at 16:53 of the first period when left wing Matt Beleskey made a great individual effort to send a shot past Bishop while on his knees.
Gustavsson, making a spot start for Tuukka Rask, had 21 saves and improved to 3-0-0 on the season. Bishop had 32 saves for the Lightning.
NOTES: Gustavsson started in place of Rask with the Bruins being on the second part of back-to-back games. … Lightning C Tyler Johnson was in the lineup after missing practice Friday with a “body maintenance” day. Forwards Jonathan Drouin (lower body) and Cedric Paquette (ankle) were both out. … Coming into Saturday, the Bruins were scoring 35.5 percent of the time on their power play, best in the NHL.