ATLANTA – Martin Lapointe scored the go-ahead goal in his 700th NHL game, helping the Boston Bruins beat the Atlanta Thrashers 6-4 Wednesday night.

Joe Thornton had a goal and an assist for the Bruins, who weren’t called for a penalty for the first time since March 28, 2001, against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oddly, the Leafs didn’t have a penalty in that one, either.

Rob Zamuner added an empty-net goal with 1:04 left, and Travis Green, Michal Grosek and Mike Knuble also scored for Boston, which snapped a four-game winless streak (0-2-1-1).

Marc Savard tied it early in the third period by stuffing in a rebound for the Thrashers, who have just one win in five games (1-4).

They still lead Tampa Bay by one point in the Southeast Division.

Slava Kozlov, J.P. Vigier and Shawn McEachern had goals for Atlanta.

With 8:40 left, Patrice Bergeron stole the puck in the corner while the Thrashers were in a line change. He fed it to Lapointe, who skated in alone and beat goaltender Pasi Nurminen.

Atlanta defenseman Shawn Heins, coming off the bench, couldn’t make it in the zone fast enough to stop Lapointe.

The Thrashers blew three one-goal leads, including one after just 20 seconds.

Slava Kozlov took a cross-ice, backhanded pass from Patrik Stefan and beat Andrew Raycroft.

They also led 3-2 after a short-handed goal by McEachern early in the second, when he completed a two-on-one with Garnet Exelby.

The Bruins made it 3-3 when Grosek redirected a shot from the blue line by Ian Moran, and it skittered through the Nurminen’s legs. Moran took the puck only seconds after a big hit by Exelby put him on the ice.

A diving, backhanded goal by Knuble gave Boston its first lead. Nurminen stopped a shot by Glen Murray but couldn’t corral the rebound. Knuble, with Atlanta center Randy Robitaille draped all over him, put it back in just before he fell.

Notes: The Thrashers assigned C Tommi Santala to Chicago of the AHL. In 24 games this season, he had one goal and one assist. … Boston won that penalty-free game against Toronto 3-0. … C Ben Simon, acquired in a trade with Nashville on Tuesday, made his Thrashers debut. D Tomas Kloucek, who also came to Atlanta in that trade, was a healthy scratch.

AP-ES-12-03-03 2216EST