TAMPA, Fla. — Something had to give.
The Bruins pulled into Tampa having won seven straight games on the road, with the NHL’s second-best winning percentage. The Lightning had won 10 straight at Amalie Arena, and owned the league’s second-best home winning percentage.
Thursday night, it was an opportunistic Victor Hedman goal from the corner with 6:41to play that finally broke through.
Hedman’s goal, which came as Boston goaltender Linus Ullmark was tumbled over by his own defenseman, gave the Lightning a 3-2 win over the Bruins (38-6-4) at Amalie Arena. The Lightning improved to 31-15-1 with the win in what was considered a measuring stick for this team as it turns its attention toward the playoffs.
The 11 straight wins at home matched a franchise record. It was the first time in three games this season the Lightning had beaten the Bruins.
Nikita Kucherov scored his 20th goal of the season just 58 seconds into the third period, and had two assists on the night. Two seconds after Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy was helped off the ice after colliding into the boards at full speed, Kucherov took a pass off the faceoff and fired it into the far-side of the net behind Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark to give the Bolts a brief 2-1 lead.
It was Kucherov’s second point of the night, he picked up his third on Hedman’s game-winner.
With the Bruins’ penalty killers rushing out to try and smoother Kucherov on the circle, they left Brandon Hagel alone in front of the goal. Kucherov drew them out, and snapped the puck to Hagel, who steadied the puck right at the top of the crease and snapped a shot over Ullmark’s stick.
The goal, with 9:18 remaining in the first period, was Hagel’s 19th of the season, his first in the last three games. It was his sixth power-play goal of the season and the 11th game in the last 13 in which he has scored a point.
It was just the second power-play goal the Bruins —who have the best penalty kill in the NHL — had allowed in the last six games.
Kucherov rang up his 50h assist of the season on that play, becoming the first in the NHL to reach that mark this season. He reached it in just 47 games; in the 2018-19 season he reached it in 43 games, making him the only active skater to reach the 50-assist mark before playing in 50 games in multiple seasons. He is the 12th overall to do it in NHL history.
With the Lightning caught in their own zone for an extended stretch, Bruins forward Brad Marchand came off the bench and tied it at 1-all with 3:02 to play in the second. He drew Hedman out and fired a wrist shot that went under the leg of Steven Stamkos, and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy on the glove side. It was Marchand’s 16th goal of the season, his third against the Lightning. He has scored in every game except two since the Christmas break.
Pavel Zacha answered Kucherov’s goal in the third by knocking in a rebound at the 2:24 mark.
The Bruins had beaten the Lightning in the first two meetings of the season, including a 5-3 win at Amalie Arena in November.
“We have the fifth-best winning percentage in the league. And we’re 19 points behind them,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after the morning skate on Thursday. “They’re doing something right. So that’s impressive.”
