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  Thursday, Jan. 20 7:30pm ET
Bruins bounce Lightning 4-2
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- The Boston Bruins have made an impression on their veteran leader.

"This is the most adventurous team I've ever coached," coach Pat Burns said, after the Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 Thursday night. "We make every game an adventure."

Byron Dafoe stopped 26 shots and Andre Savage scored a fluke third-period goal as the Bruins recorded their first two-game winning streak since Nov. 22-24. Although the Bruins are 5-12-8 over the past 25 games, Boston has put together a five-game unbeaten streak (2-0-3).

"It was a close game," Dafoe said. "They're a competitive team, and gave us a good run."

Dafoe made point-blank saves in the first period on Fredrik Modin and Pavel Kubina. He also stopped Robert Petrovicky from in-close during the second period.

Savage was credited with a goal at 8:32 of the third, making it 3-1. Tampa Bay's Chris Gratton beat Savage on a faceoff, but the puck deflected into the net off Lightning defenseman Paul Mara.

"That's a one-in-a-million chance," Gratton said. "You won't see that happen often in this league."

Marty McSorley and Joe Thornton had first-period goals for the Bruins.

Jaroslav Svejkovsky, playing his first game since being acquired Monday from Washington, had two goals for Tampa Bay, which fell to 1-13-2 over the past 16 games. The Lightning are 3-28-3 in January the past three seasons.

"It was another loss ... I don't take anything out of losses, especially the way things are going of late," Gratton said. "We need something to happen, and happen quick."

The Lightning played most of the game's final three minutes without a goalie. Svejkovsky made it 3-2 at 18:30, but Rob DiMaio got the goal back for Boston 24 seconds later, scoring into the empty net.

"I thought it was an evenly matched performance on both sides," Burns said. "We got some timely goals and Byron made some timely saves."

McSorley picked up his first goal since March 6 -- breaking a 29-game slump -- and put the Bruins up 1-0 at 10:11 of the first. Tampa Bay got the equalizer from Svejkovsky, who had gone 22 games without a goal, at 12:59.

The Bruins made it 2-1 on Thornton's 12th goal at 17:17 of the first.

Tampa Bay forward Nils Ekman left after the first with a hip pointer and did not return. His status is day-to-day.
 


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RECAPS
NY Rangers 4
Carolina 1

Ottawa 1
Philadelphia 1

Boston 4
Tampa Bay 2

Phoenix 2
Buffalo 1

Dallas 5
Los Angeles 2

AUDIO/VIDEO
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 Marty McSorley scores his first goal of the season.
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