Boston’s Brad Marchand slips past a check by Tampa Bay’s Matt Dumba in the first period Wednesday night at Tampa, Fla. Chris O’Meara/Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. — Brayden Point scored his 42nd goal of the season to break a second-period tie, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves, and the surging Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Atlantic Division-leading Boston Bruins 3-1 on Wednesday night.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Mitchell Chaffee and Nikita Kucherov as the Lightning improved to 7-0-1 over their last eight games. The Lightning moved within two points of third-place Toronto in the Atlantic Division.
Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman and Point both returned after missing one game with lower-body injuries.
Linus Ullmark stopped 28 shots, and Danton Heinen scored for the Bruins. Boston was coming off a 4-3 win Tuesday night at Florida.
Point put the Lightning up 2-1 on a wraparound 6:50 into the second. The center has 10 goals over his last seven games.
Kucherov took over the NHL points lead with 124 on an empty-net goal with 27 seconds left.
Vasilevskiy won his 290th game to tie Ed Giacomin for 46th place on the career list.
Tampa Bay appeared to go up 3-1 on what would have given Steven Stamkos his ninth 30-goal season at 5:44 of the third, but a video review found the play was offside.
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