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Lightning surge past Bruins

Mar 23, 2015 - 1:26 AM Tampa, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Vladislav Namestnikov, J.T. Brown and Ondrej Palat each tallied a goal and an assist to power the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-3 win over the slumping Boston Bruins Sunday.

Jason Garrison and Anton Stralman also scored, while Ben Bishop made 25 saves for the Lightning, who have won three straight games and improved to 7-1-1 over their last nine.

"We feel like we can win any game," Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. "We may not win every game, but we feel like we can."

Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, Daniel Paille all lit the lamp for the Bruins, who dropped their fifth in a row. They hold a narrow one-point lead over the idle Senators, who have a game in hand, for the final playoff berth in the East.

"Defeated? No," Boston forward Chris Kelly said. "We lost some big games, but I still think we control our destiny, and we have nine games left."

Tuukka Rask gave up four goals on 12 shots before being pulled early in the second period, while Niklas Svedberg gave up one goal on seven shots in relief.

Tampa Bay ended a 10-game skid against the Bruins, winning for the first time since March 13, 2012.

The Lightning used two goals in a span of 15 seconds to take the lead.

Brown worked his way through two defenders and shot the puck over Rask's glove at 10:47 of the first period and Stralman one-timed a shot from the top of the left circle at 11:02 for a 3-1 score.

In the second, Garrison increased Tampa Bay's lead to three goals and chased Rask from the game with a one-timer from the high slot at 7:54.

Chara's blast from the right circle while on the man advantage pulled the Bruins within 4-2 with 9:38 left in regulation, but Palat countered with a power-play strike of his own three minutes later.

Paille's short-range wrister from the edge of the right circle capped the scoring with 48 seconds to play.

Bergeron got Boston off to a quick start as he took Brad Marchand's pass from below the goal line and wristed a shot past Bishop from the slot just 33 seconds into the game.

Just over five minutes later, Namestnikov tied the game by wristing a rebound past Rask's pad from the top of the goalmouth.

Game Notes

Brown scored his first goal since Jan. 6 against Montreal, while Garrison tallied for the first time since Dec. 4 against Buffalo ... Lightning defenseman Matt Carle supplied two assists ... The Bruins were without defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who was injured in Saturday's 2-1 shootout loss to Florida ... Tampa Bay improved to 18-4-0 at home since Dec. 9 ... The two teams will conclude their season series at Amalie Arena on April 11.