By The Associated Press

BOSTON – The Boston Bruins have learned not to worry too much when losing a lead in the third period.

Brad Boyes scored the tiebreaking goal and Bruins beat the short-handed Ottawa Senators for the second time this season, 4-2 Thursday night.

“Earlier in the year, our mind-set when losing a third period lead was to hang our heads,” Boyes said. “But now the mind-set is there and it has been for the last month.”

Ottawa was playing without injured stars Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Martin Havlat and Brian Pothier – who have combined for 132 points this season.

“It was a disappointing loss,” Senators goalie Domink Hasek said. “With all of our injuries, we can’t give up more than two goals and expect to win.”

Boston has alternated wins and losses in its last nine games, and is the Northeast Division foe to beat Ottawa this season. The Bruins also beat the Senators 3-0 at home on Dec. 1.

“We are not a pretty team and to be successful we have to do the little things,” Bruins defenseman Hal Gill said.

“We need to stack sone wins together because playing .500 won’t get it done the rest of the way.”

The Senators trailed 2-1 in the third period when Mike Fisher scored a short-handed goal on a breakaway, beating backup goalie Andrew Raycroft.

“A lot of our top players are out right now and we haven’t been able to find a way to score,” Fisher said.

Boyes responded with the Bruins’ second power-play goal of the game, a slap shot that beat Hasek with 6:50 left in the third.

The Bruins had been struggling on the power play, going 6-for-69 in the previous 15 games.

“The fact that we got that power-play goal right after the one we gave up was big,” Bruins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’ve been preaching to our players not to get discouraged and that was a real turning point.”

Starting goalie Hannu Toivonen was replaced by Raycroft after he left the game with an ankle injury at the end of the second period. Toivonen made 22 saves and has allowed two goals in three appearances against Ottawa this season.

The Bruins and Senators combined for three goals in a span of 1:33 in the second.

Chris Neil gave the Senators a 1-0 lead when he scored his career-high 11th goal at the 5:07 mark. Neil redirected Wade Redden’s shot past Toivonen.

The Bruins answered with goals by Glen Murray and Brad Stuart to take a 2-1 lead with 13:20 remaining in the second.

After Murray knocked in the rebound of a Marco Sturm shot, Stuart followed with a power-play goal when his slap shot from the left faceoff circle beat Hasek.

Stuart has three goals and six assists in 13 games since being acquired in the Joe Thornton trade.

Travis Green added an empty net goal with 11.9 seconds remaining and Patrice Bergeron had two assists for the Bruins.

Flyers 4, Rangers 3

NEW YORK – Simon Gagne scored 7 seconds into overtime after Peter Forsberg won the faceoff, and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the New York Rangers 4-3 Wednesday night to stretch their Atlantic Division lead.

Gagne took the puck from Forsberg and skated to the right of goalie Kevin Weekes and beat him to the short-side post for his NHL-leading 28th goal.

Philadelphia defensemen Freddy Meyer and Kim Johnsson scored two of the Flyers’ three power-play goals, and Antero Niittymaki made 31 saves. It was the 16th one-goal decision in 18 games for Philadelphia.

Red Wings 3, Blues 0

DETROIT – Playing for the first time in more than a month, Manny Legace made 15 saves for his third shutout of the season to lead the Detroit Red Wings over the St. Louis Blues 3-0 Thursday night.

Pavel Datsyuk, Kris Draper and Henrik Zetterberg scored for the Western Conference-leading Red Wings, who have won six of seven.

Detroit also welcomed back captain Steve Yzerman, who played for the first time since Dec. 9. Yzerman has appeared in just 22 of 40 games this season because of two groin injuries.

Devils 5, Canadiens 4

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Patrik Elias had two goals and two assists in his second game back since recovering from hepatitis to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 5-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.

The Devils struggled to score this season without Elias, who contracted the illness while playing in Europe during the NHL lockout last year.

Against Montreal, Elias combined with linemates Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta for three goals and eight points as New Jersey won its second straight.

Avalanche 4, Wild 2

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Alex Tanguay scored twice and David Aebischer had 33 saves to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.

Brett McLean added a goal and an assist and Marek Svatos broke the Avalanche record for goals by a rookie with his 21st of the season in Colorado’s third straight win.

The Wild entered the night having won eight of their last 11 games to creep back into the Western Conference playoff race.