TAMPA, Fla. — Once Steven Stamkos scored, there was no stopping him from doing it again.

The NHL goals leader scored twice to reach 50 in a season for the second time, and the Tampa Bay Lightning jumped to a big early lead before coasting to a 6-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

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Maybe the Bruins should have used both goalies at the same time Tuesday night. Marty Turco, left, started and was replaced by Tim Thomas, who was also ineffective. Tampa Bay scored on 6 of 17 shots in beating the Bruins. The Associated Press

Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos celebrates his 50th goal, in the third period Tuesday night in Tampa, Fla. Stamkos scored twice in a 6-1 win over Boston. The Associated Press

The 22-year-old Stamkos, who moved into a tie for the league scoring lead with Evgeni Malkin with 84 points, also scored his 49th and 50th goals in the same game two seasons ago.

“It was definitely in the back of my mind. It was nice last time I did it to get to 49 and 50 in one game,” said Stamkos, the first pick in the 2008 draft. “That was definitely running through my mind.”

Tampa Bay scored three times in the first five minutes and made it easy for rookie goalie Dustin Tokarski, who earned his first NHL victory.

Tom Pyatt, Nate Thompson and Ryan Shannon led the surge that ruined Marty Turco’s first start as Boston’s backup goalie. The defending Stanley Cup champions have lost three straight for the first time since late October and were limited to two shots in the opening period, 34 overall.

Stamkos scored his 49th goal in the second period and added his NHL-best 50th at 11:43 of the third. He is the sixth player in league history to score 50 goals twice before age 23, and Lightning Guy Boucher feels he is capable of more.

“There’s always more. … You can always raise your standard,” Boucher said. “He’s gotten better every year.”

The Bruins signed Turco on March 5 as a backup for No. 1 goalie Tim Thomas after Tuukka Rask sustained a lower abdomen-groin strain that could sideline him 4 to 6 weeks. The 36-year-old Turco played 40 minutes in relief during a 5-2 loss on Sunday at Pittsburgh.

Thomas replaced Turco after Shannon’s goal made it 3-0 just 4:31 in, but he didn’t fare much better. Bruins Coach Claude Julien went back to Turco after Thomas yielded a goal to Victor Hedman late in the first period, then another to Stamkos early in the second.

The Bruins didn’t make either goalie available for interviews after the game.

Boston has lost three consecutive games for the first time since falling to San Jose and Montreal twice from Oct. 22-29. Tampa Bay ended a three-game skid that included an overtime loss at Washington and a home loss to Carolina in Tokarski’s first two NHL starts as a replacement for the injured Mathieu Garon (groin).

“We can’t blame it on our goalies. They’ve had our backs so many times this season, and it’s one of those games when we had to have their backs and we didn’t do that,” Bruins defenseman Zdeno Charo said. “It was a tough game for all of us.”

Julien agreed with Chara’s assessment.

“What’s really throwing us off right now is we give those teams leads, and all of a sudden guys are getting frustrated, and we just kind of get away from our game plan,” Julien said. “Instead of playing the way we should, we’re starting to cheat and we’re trying to get those goals back. In frustration, we’re making poor decisions and so on and so forth. It just snowballs.”

Even though Turco is ineligible for the playoffs because he was signed after the Feb. 27 trade deadline, the Bruins are hoping he can play well enough to help keep the 37-year-old Thomas fresh for the postseason.

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