BOSTON — Mark Recchi scored twice in the final three minutes, and Tuukka Rask stopped 32 shots for Boston, which opened a three-goal lead and held on to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 on Thursday night.

Mark Stuart, Derek Morris and David Krejci scored to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead after two periods. Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin had goals in the third to cut Toronto’s deficit to 3-2, but Recchi scored with 2:37 to play and then added an empty netter with 12 seconds left to clinch it.

Vesa Toskala made 29 saves for Toronto, which lost 7-2 in Boston on Saturday night.

The Bruins improved to 8-1-1 in the last 10 games and took over first place in the Northeast Division.

It was the second time in six days Boston took a big lead on the Maple Leafs and former Bruins forward Phil Kessel, who signed with Toronto as a restricted free agent in the offseason. On Saturday, the Bruins scored the first seven goals and coasted.

This time, Boston squandered most of a 3-0 lead before getting a late power play when Jason Blake was called for high-sticking with 4:01 left.

The Bruins put pressure on, bouncing the puck in front of the net, but Recchi and Krejci failed to put it in until it went wide to Blake Wheeler. He passed it back into the slot where Recchi redirected it in to make it 4-2.

Recchi added an empty netter with 12 seconds left.

Just as they did on Saturday, when the Bruins dominated in Kessel’s first visit, the crowd booed him virtually every time he touched the puck. At least one fan in the crowd wore a Kessel T-shirt, but the name and number on the back had been X’d out.

The Bruins controlled the game from the start when Blake was sent off 16 seconds in with a double minor for high-sticking. Boston couldn’t score on the power play, but took a 1-0 lead with 11:59 to play in the first when a faceoff went around the horn and found its way to Stuart, who slapped it in from the point.

It was his first goal since Oct. 17, and Johnny Boychuk’s first NHL assist.

Morris made it 2-0 with a slapper from the point 35 seconds into the second period, 6 seconds after Ian White was sent off for holding. Krejci gave Boston a 3-0 lead midway through the second when he blocked a shot with his skate and took off on a breakaway, faking out Toskala to score.

Toronto made it 3-1 just 18 seconds into the third period when Blake shot the puck across the net, and Grabovski slammed home the rebound. Kulemin cut the deficit to one goal, deflecting a shot in from the side of the crease.

Kessel was scoreless for the second time in two games against the Bruins. The No. 5 overall pick in the 2006 draft scored 36 goals last season – and a total of 66 in his first three NHL seasons but he couldn’t come to terms with the Bruins.

Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli said Kessel had told the Bruins he wanted to play elsewhere and traded him to Toronto for two first-round draft picks and a second-rounder.

Senators 2, Flyers 0
PHILADELPHIA – Brian Elliott made 22 saves in his second NHL shutout and Nick Foligno and Jesse Winchester scored third-period goals to give the Ottawa Senators a 2-0 victory over the slumping Philadelphia Flyers.

With 9:30 minutes left, Foligno took a wrist shot from just above the circle and then put his rebound past diving goalie Brian Boucher, who had smothered another drive by Foligno a few minutes earlier.

Winchester sealed the victory with a short-handed, empty-net goal in the final minute.

It was the first shutout this season for the Senators, who have two wins in their past six games.

The Flyers were blanked for the third time in six games. They are 1-3 under new coach Peter Laviolette, who replaced the fired John Stevens a week ago after Philadelphia’s two consecutive shutout losses.

Philadelphia, which lost six of seven before the coaching change, has scored only 11 goals in seven games. Six of those came in a 6-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday.

The Senators scored 12 goals in their previous five games, earning their lone win in a shootout against Anaheim.

Philadelphia’s best scoring opportunity came with 5:47 in the second period, but Elliot stretched across the net to thwart Scott Hartnell’s backhanded breakaway attempt.

Penguins 3, Canadiens 2

MONTREAL  — Pascal
Dupuis scored on a slap shot 13:21 into the third period and Marc-Andre
Fleury made 19 saves as the Pittsburgh Penguins stopped Montreal’s
three-game winning streak with a 3-2 win over the Canadiens on Thursday
night.

Dupuis wound up from the top of the left circle and drove
a high shot that struck goalie Carey Price’s glove before going into
the net.

Sergei Gonchar had a goal and an assist, and Matt Cooke
also scored for the Penguins, who had lost two in a row since becoming
the first team to reach 20 wins this season.

Price stopped 38
shots for Montreal, which had won three in a row after a 5-1 victory
over Boston on Friday in the Canadiens’ 100th anniversary game.

Matt
D’Agostini and Roman Hamrlik scored on Montreal’s first and third shots
of the second period as the Canadiens took a 2-1 lead. The Canadiens
had been outshot 9-0 midway through the frame and 20-7 overall before
they broke through.

Montreal, outshot 41-21 in the game, had an
apparent tying goal waved off with 5:52 left when the referees ruled
that the whistle had blown before Scott Gomez fired the puck into the
net.

Sidney Crosby was held without a point in his second game
back from a groin injury that forced him to sit out Saturday’s 2-1
overtime loss to Chicago. The Penguins captain has failed to record a
point in each of his last three games in Montreal and has not scored a
goal in his last five games there.

Crosby, who scored his 20th
goal and eighth in four games in a 3-2 loss to Carolina on Monday, had
four goals and an assist in the Penguins’ two previous games against
the Canadiens this season, both home wins.

Cooke drew Pittsburgh even at 2 when he redirected Gonchar’s point shot past Price 17:45 into the second for his sixth goal.

Gonchar,
who recorded his 650th career point on Cooke’s goal, scored his fourth
goal of the season 6:38 in on a nice feed from Bill Guerin.

D’Agostini
made the Canadiens’ first shot of the second period count when he fired
a wrist shot over Fleury’s right shoulder at 10:48 to tie it at 1.

Hamrlik made it 2-1 on a power play at 13:38 when he drove a slap shot from the left point past Fleury for his fifth goal.

The Canadiens are making a habit out of scoring on few shots.

Montreal
won 4-1 in Ottawa on Tuesday despite being outshot 46-27. The Canadiens
managed only 13 shots Monday in a 3-1 win over Philadelphia in which
the teams combined for 28 shots. That was a franchise low for fewest
shots recorded in a game by both teams.

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