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Recchi's PP goal lifts Boston over Tampa Bay

Dec 29, 2010 - 7:57 AM Tampa, FL (Sports Network) - Marc Recchi's power play goal with 19.7 seconds left in the game lifted Boston to a 4-3 win over Tampa Bay at St. Pete Times Forum.

Michael Ryder and Brad Marchand tallied for the Bruins, who also got Steven Kampfer's first career goal in their third straight victory and fourth win in five games.

Tim Thomas turned away 31 shots to earn the win for the Bruins, who have won two of three meetings between the teams this season.

The Big Three of Steven Stamkos, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis notched goals for the Lightning, who had won two in a row and six out of seven coming into the contest.

Dan Ellis made 25 saves in defeat.

With 1:50 to play in the game, Marchand and Sean Bergenheim went off for matching roughing minors and Stamkos was assessed a boarding minor to create the man-advantage for the visitors.

"I thought it was a shoulder-to-shoulder hit," Stamkos said. "Obviously he went into the boards pretty hard, but by no means was I trying to hurt the guy. From my vantage point I was coming hard on the back check, he had the puck and my left shoulder hit his right shoulder. I don't know why thats a penalty."

Recchi took a pass from Patrice Bergeron and beat Ellis to the far side from in between the circles for his seventh goal of the season.

Marchand backhanded a rebound past a sprawling Ellis three minutes into the final period to put the Bruins back in the lead at 3-2 before the Bolts forged the third tie of the game just under eight minutes later.

Stamkos threw a backhand pass from behind the net that caromed off a Boston skate to St. Louis, who was stationed at the left door step and wristed the loose disc past Thomas with 9:10 left to play.

Ryder got the scoring started just 28 seconds into the game with a power play wrister that beat Ellis.

Stamkos tied the game with his league-leading 13th power play goal when he rammed home a rebound from the left side when Thomas wound up on his back after making the initial save.

The Bruins cashed in on the power play for the second time when Kampfer took a cross ice feed from Marc Savard at the bottom of the right circle and wristed it past Ellis at 3:27 of the middle session.

Lecavalier's wraparound goal got the game even with just under six minutes left in the period.

Game Notes

Recchi also recorded an assist and has 1,506 career points, good for 13th place all-time...Savard's assist was the 700th point of his career...Thomas is 18-4-3 in 26 career games against Tampa Bay...The Bruins have scored first in nine of their last 13 games...Boston is 9-4-0 versus the Southeast Division while the Lightning dropped to 6-2-0 against the Northeast Division...Pavel Kubina had two assists in the defeat...The last five games between the teams in Florida have been decided by two goals or less...Tampa Bay had recorded a point in eight straight games before Tuesday, its longest since an 18-game streak in 2004.