Trent Frederic, center, celebrates with Kevin Shattenkirk, left, and Hampus Lindholm after the first of his two goals Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
BOSTON — Trent Frederic scored two goals, David Pastrnak added his team-leading 24th, and the Boston Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-3 on Saturday night.
Charlie McAvoy, Morgan Geekie, Charlie Coyle and Jake DeBrusk also scored for Boston, which has won five of its last six games. Hampus Lindholm and Matt Poitras each had two assists, and Linus Ullmark made 23 saves.
The loss delayed Tampa Bay Coach Jon Cooper’s chance to become the 29th coach to reach 500 NHL wins.
Brayden Point scored two goals and Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who have dropped four of six. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 shots.
After the Bruins gave up Point’s goal 21 seconds into the game, Frederic tied it with his power-play score at 4:42. The Bruins forward got a pass in the slot, quickly shifted from his backhand to forehand and shoveled it over Vasilevskiy’s right pad.
Seconds after Frederic’s hard check sent Emil Martinsen Lilleberg into the side boards and brought a loud roar from the TD Garden crowd, McAvoy’s goal pushed Boston ahead 2-1 with 5:04 left in the first when his wrister from the right point deflected off Point’s stick and sailed over Vasilevskiy.
Frederic added his second goal early in the second period, scoring off his own rebound when it caromed off the back of Vasilevskiy’s right pad to make it 3-1.
Tampa Bay sliced it to 3-2 on Kuchreov’s hustle goal before Pavel Zacha sent Pastrnak in on a semi-breakaway. The Bruins’ star forward fired a wrister past Vasilevskiy’s glove to restore the two-goal lead, then pumped his left fist as he was gliding on one knee, celebrating along the boards.
Point’s second goal, off a cross-ice feed from Kucherov, cut the deficit to one again late in the second. But Geekie made it 5-3 at 1:35 of the third.
DeBrusk’s empty-net short-handed score sealed it with 3:26 to play, and Coyle scored his 14th on a breakaway just 40 seconds later.
Copper was whistled for a misconduct when he was screaming at the referees after Frederic’s second goal.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.