Lightning tie NHL wins record by beating Bruins in season finale

BOSTON—The Tampa Bay Lightning won their NHL record-tying 62nd game, getting a short-handed goal by Steven Stamkos during a three-goal second period on the way to a 6-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Saturday to close out the regular season.

Nikita Kucherov, Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak and Braydon Coburn also scored for Tampa Bay (62-16-4), which tied the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for most victories during the regular season. Kucherov’s goal plus an assist gave him a league-leading 128 points, tying Alexander Mogilny’s mark set in 1992-93 for most by a Russian-born player.

NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov tucks his 41st goal of the season past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask in Saturday’s record-tying 6-3 road win by the Lightning. (Michael Dwyer / AP)

Six of their wins came in shootouts. The league introduced shootouts to decide ties after overtime at the start of the 2005-06 season. Before that, games ended in ties after overtime, which was brought in for regular-season games in 1983.

David Krejci, Danton Heinen and Matt Grzelcyk each had a goal for Boston, which fell one short of consecutive 50-win seasons. Tuukka Rask made 16 saves.

Third-string goalie Edward Pasquale stopped 30 shots for Tampa, and Tyler Johnson added an empty-netter.

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It was the Lightning’s 30th road win, making them just the second team in league history to reach that total. The 2005-06 Red Wings had 31.

Boston, which will take on Toronto in the opening round of the playoffs for the second straight season, rested Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand.

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This article was originally published by Thestar.com. Read the original article here.