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Krejci, Kessel keep Bruins rolling

Dec 5, 2008 - 5:40 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- David Krejci snapped a tie with a shorthanded goal 8:17 into the third period as the Boston Bruins recorded a 3-1 triumph over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.

Phil Kessel scored twice as Boston improved to 15-2-1 in its last 18 contests. Kessel has netted eight goals in as many games.

Marc Savard set up a pair of goals and Tim Thomas made 30 saves en route to his 10th victory of the season.

Martin St. Louis scored and Mike Smith turned aside 23 shots for Tampa Bay, which fell to 1-7-4 in its last 12 contests - and 1-4-4 under interim coach Rick Tocchet.

"I don't know how to address it. We played hard tonight, real hard," Tocchet said. "It's kind of been the theme the last four weeks.

"Blown coverage, and then they get a shorthanded goal. It's like 1-0 and it seems like we're just waiting for something bad to happen. Until that stops, we're gonna have a tough time winning."

With the game tied at 1-1 and his team shorthanded, rookie Blake Wheeler intercepted a pass and fed Krejci ahead of the play. Krejci quickly wristed the puck past Smith for his eighth goal of the season, extending his points streak to seven contests.

"It's great," Krejci said. "It was a tight hockey game. I think we played good in the second and third periods. We were all over them and we deserved to win. I was just hoping that we were going to score, and I'm glad that it was me."

Kessel capped the scoring with an empty-netter with one second remaining in the third period. The tally was Kessel's team-leading 15th of the campaign.

Bruins coach Claude Julien was thrilled with the production of both Krejci and Kessel.

"That's just some of our young players continuing to evolve and grow into great players," Julien said. "That was an unbelievable goal by Krejci - the patience and the move he put on. And Phil, same thing.

"But you've got to give (Savard) credit there. He could have shot that into the empty net, and he felt it was important to slide over to Phil."

After St. Louis opened the scoring just 81 seconds into the contest, Thomas prevented Tampa Bay from extending its lead with point-blank stops on captain Vincent Lecavalier and St. Louis in the second period.

"Sticking with our game play has been so successful lately, and tonight (Tampa Bay) put a lot of pressure on us," Thomas said. "We could have folded. We stayed with it, stuck with our game plan, and then after the second period, same thing."

Kessel knotted the contest with 7:39 remaining in the second period.

After keeping the puck in the offensive zone along the boards, Kessel skated toward the net and received a feed from Savard. The 21-year-old Kessel quickly slipped the puck between the pads of Smith to extend his points streak to 10 games.

"It's the little things in games that make the difference whether you win or lose, and right now, we're not scoring goals, so obviously they're magnified," Smith said. "But if you're scoring five, six goals, maybe those mistakes don't look as big in the whole picture.

"Right now, they're costing us wins. Obviously, it's tough to win a game when you're only scoring one goal."