Taylor Hall registered his first two-goal game of the season as the Boston Bruins beat the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Hall, who had scored just once over his previous 11 games, lit the lamp early in the first and third periods to pace a Bruins team that has won back-to-back games and nine of the past 10.
Brad Marchand slid home an empty-net goal with 41 seconds left to secure the victory.
Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves, improving to 4-1-0 in his past five decisions.
Boston stayed perfect at home at 13-0-0, an NHL record for the best-ever home start.
After logging a two-goal game Monday in Buffalo, Steven Stamkos scored Tampa Bay’s lone goal in the third period on Tuesday. The tally left him one shy of the 1,000-point mark for his NHL career.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 23 shots, but the Lightning lost for just the second time in eight games.
The Bruins wasted little time taking a lead as Hall redirected in Brandon Carlo’s point shot through traffic at the 1:07 mark of the first period.
It was an even opening period overall, as Boston’s shots-on-goal advantage was just 9-7. Vasilevskiy needed to come up with a key stop on Jake DeBrusk’s short-handed breakaway attempt with 2:21 left, holding the score at 1-0.
Swayman stopped a hard Nikita Kucherov shot right at the start of Tampa Bay’s second power play, but Stamkos pumped in a one-timer from the left dot to tie the score with 1:40 remaining in the middle frame. Kucherov set up the tally with a cross-ice pass.
The Bruins did not earn a power play until early in the third, but they took advantage and grabbed a 2-1 lead at 2:49. Wide open in the high slot, Hall buried Nick Foligno’s great feed from behind the goal line.
Swayman preserved Boston’s slim lead with strong play late, including a flashing pad stop on Corey Perry on a two-on-one with 6:50 remaining.
Just over two minutes later, the hosts missed a golden chance to pad their lead when Pavel Zacha’s one-timer off a David Pastrnak feed sailed wide of an open net.
–Field Level Media
