Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

March 3

Bruins finally empowered

Brad Marchand breaks a 2-2 tie late in the game with Boston enjoying a four-minute man advantage.

The Associated Press

BOSTON - The Boston Bruins' power-play woes took a dramatic turn.

While Boston still has much work ahead with the man advantage, a pair of rare power-play goals led the Bruins from a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Tyler Seguin's goal early in the second period was Boston's first at home during a power play this season, then Brad Marchand doubled the small total when he scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:16 left in the third period with Tampa Bay down a man because of a four-minute high sticking penalty.

"It's big. We needed those," Marchand said. "That's what we need our power play to do -- step up at the right times, get us in the game."

Seguin's goal cut Tampa Bay's lead to 2-1, Rich Peverley scored 1:17 later to tie it and Marchand scored the winner when he and Patrice Bergeron got behind the Lightning's penalty killers for a 2-on-1.

Bergeron raced up the right side and timed the pass to his left perfectly. All Marchand had to do was direct it at the net, where goalie Mathieu Garon was caught on the wrong side.

"Bergie gives me a wide-open net to shoot at. I think anyone in this league would've hit that," said Marchand, who leads the Bruins with 11 goals. "I'm fortunate to be on the team I am."

The Bruins are now 9 for 59 on the power play, still one of the lowest percentages in the league. Yet the Bruins continue to win, extending their streak to six straight on Saturday as they enjoy their best start since the 1929-30 season.

"It's not always going to be your way so you have to find ways to show some character," Bergeron said. "I think we've done that again tonight."

The Bruins were called for 10 penalties, six in the first period, and the Lightning had seven in the game, including Brendan Mikkelson's double-minor for a high stick on Milan Lucic with 5:39 left in the third.

The Lightning nearly had the penalty killed, but Steven Stamkos tried for a short-handed goal instead of killing time. The shot took a funny bounce off the boards and set up Bergeron and Marchand for the winning goal.

"We gambled and wasted 58 minutes of hard, intelligent, paying-the-price work," Lightning Coach Guy Boucher said.

Stamkos and Alexander Killorn scored for Tampa Bay, both on power plays in the first period. The Lightning failed to score on six other power plays and finished with just 22 shots on goal.

"It's not all the time that you score on the first two power plays," Stamkos said. "Sometimes it's the last two and then everyone says 'Oh, your power play is great!' Our power play was better tonight. We generated some chances and we got two. Hopefully we build on that.

Anton Khudobin saw just 22 shots as Boston starter Tuukka Rask got the day off with rival Montreal coming to Boston on Sunday.

Garon faced 27 shots for the Lightning, who lost their fourth in a row.

Dougie Hamilton and David Krejci assisted.

 

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