BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron had a goal and two assists Thursday night and the Boston Bruins took over first place in the Eastern Conference with a 4-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Tim Schaller and David Pastrnak scored 32 seconds apart in the final minute of the first period and Brad Marchand added an empty-net goal with 56 seconds left.

Torey Krug had two assists, Pastrnak finished with a goal and an assist and Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots for the Bruins, who have 107 points and lead Tampa Bay by a point.

Boston has six games remaining in the regular season to five for Tampa Bay.

For the first time since Oct. 18, a team other than the Lightning leads the Eastern Conference.

Postseason implications were apparent throughout, including a rare fight for Pastrnak in the third period and Rask unloading a flurry of punches on Cory Conacher of Tampa Bay during a scrum in the second.

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The game ended with the officials separating everybody one last time before the Bruins skated down and congratulated Rask.

J.T. Miller scored a power-play goal for Tampa Bay in the second and Victor Hedman added a goal in the third. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 26 saves for the Lightning, who have lost three straight and are 0-3 against the Bruins this season.

Tampa Bay had an apparent goal waved off in the third a few minutes before Krug passed to Bergeron at the side of the net for a goal to put Boston up 3-1 at 11:59 of the period.

The Lightning cut it to 3-2 when Hedman beat Rask through his legs with 6:06 remaining.

Marchand added an empty-net goal with assists going to Bergeron and Pastrnak.

The Bruins outshot the Lightning 17-6 in the first period and took a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals in the final minute.

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Schaller put Boston up 1-0 after stealing the puck from Ryan McDonagh just inside the blue line and started a two-on-one break with Tommy Wingels, who got off a shot as Schaller crashed the net and poked in the rebound.

McDonagh caught Schaller from behind and both went crashing into the crossbar, taking out the net but not before the puck had crossed the line.

Alex Killorn of the Lightning was assessed an interference penalty with 31 seconds remaining and Pastrnak scored five seconds into the penalty, putting the Bruins up 2-0 with 26 seconds left in the period.

PENGUINS 4, DEVILS 3: Sidney Crosby batted his own rebound out of the air and into the net 19 seconds into overtime and Pittsburgh won at Newark, New Jersey, denying New Jersey a sweep of the four-game season series.

RED WINGS 6, SABRES 3: Anthony Mantha scored his team-leading 24th goal and Detroit snapped an 11-game road losing streak.

NOTES

BLACKHAWKS: Defenseman Brent Seabrook played in his 1,000th NHL regular-season game.

KINGS: Los Angeles agreed to terms with free-agent defenseman Daniel Brickley.


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